Darkness Gives Way
by Mara Harmonia
Summary: Re-uploaded in new account. Days after Kouichi is saved by Kouji and his friends, they're called to save the Digital World again. However, this time they'll need more help to keep the evil away, but will they all survive? Xros over with 02. Minor OC's, slight shipping hints. Character death.
1. This is Reality

_Okay guys, sorry for having taken down the story just like that, but I was motivated by a couple of things~ Anyway, if you've found the story again, then congratulations! I'm going to upload all the chapters as soon as possible, along with chapter 13 which is long due. _

* * *

Miracle and all, the doctors didn't let Kouichi out of their sight for the following days and was constantly monitored. Even Tomoko —who by another miracle hadn't seen Kouji yet in one of his attempts to get pass the security— was not allowed to see him that much. The doctors were too busy checking him to be sure that everything was fine. And, well, if by "fine" one meant having the classical symptoms of a concussion, yes, Kouichi was completely fine. Kouji frowned when the nurse explained that to him. No, that was not "fine". But at least he was glad that his brother was alive.

The three days that Kouichi had spent in the hospital were rough. Headaches, dizziness, vomiting, light sensitivity and slightly blurred vision were just the reason he wasn't allowed to move that much, and when he had to, he would be taken in a wheelchair. Especially for long trips, like the one he had to make so that the doctors could realize a CT scan. They explained to him that they would have done it after he arrived, but that his heart had already stopped by then and their priority in that moment was to save his life. Kouichi sighed when they were telling him this; it wasn't because he didn't appreciate the doctors' efforts, but they weren't the ones who had saved him. And he wanted to see the ones responsible for that more than anything.

By the time he snapped out of his thoughts, he realized that he was already in the middle of the scan process. He just laid there, cursing the after effects of his accident.

His days in the hospital were boring, he thought. Not only was he feeling bad because of the symptoms that were affecting him, but he wasn't allowed to do _anything_. Not even reading. He had already missed the first days of school, and apparently he was going to miss at least two weeks more. And he couldn't even have a normal conversation because he wasn't able to talk correctly, and that was without counting his shorter attention span and difficulty to concentrate. All he could do was getting lost in his short periods of thoughts, interrupted by any of his symptoms.

At least he could sleep. Of course, he had to wake up one or two times because of the nausea, but the rest of the night was peaceful.

He hadn't been able to see Kouji since the day he had arrived to the hospital, or the friends he had met in the Digital World. And his mother, he had only seen her a couple of times. Once again he was feeling lonely, but not as much as in the past. He just missed them, the people he was close with.

Kouji was getting anxious. He wanted to see his brother. No, he _needed_ to see him. But now he wasn't allowed near Kouichi's room, because of how he had run pass the security and straight to the emergency room where the doctors were trying to bring his brother back to life.

"It's actually incredible how they still let you near the hospital." Takuya teased him, in an attempt to lighten the mood a little. Kouji thanked him for the try —mentally—, but his face showed that he wasn't amused by it. Apparently, the rest of the team shared his thoughts.

Takuya immediately caught on this and stopped trying. Even if they weren't in the Digital World anymore, he wanted to keep their spirits high; at least for Kouichi's sake. He knew that the elder twin didn't want any of them to get worried about him, and Takuya certainly believed that he was going to be okay.

"I wonder if he's bored, being alone there." Junpei mused. In the few conversations he had had with Kouichi he had discovered that the boy liked to read when he had time. He even imagined that Kouichi had a huge collection of books. So, when the nurse —that had kindly taken them apart to update them on the condition of their friend— had told them that he wasn't able to read or talk, he presumed that the days in the hospital would be long and boring for him.

"But maybe the doctors and nurses talk with him." Tomoki said, unconsciously ignoring the fact that Kouichi couldn't talk to favor a nicer option. Takuya patted him gently on the back. "Maybe, but he can't really hold a conversation, Tomoki." He said with a small smile. "Oh, right." The boy replied, sounding a bit defeated.

Izumi took the chance to say something herself. "I'm more concerned about his mother, though. We know Kouichi will be fine, but his mother is probably really worried about him." Izumi looked at Kouji, who was supporting his elbows on his knees, looking down.

Kouji himself was busy with his own thoughts. He could feel how bad his brother felt physically. He could feel than instead of being worried for himself, he was worried about his mother. He sighed, and got a little startled when he felt Takuya's hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, don't worry. He's going to be fine." Kouji looked at Takuya. It was one of those moments when he wasn't being a hot-headed guy. It was moments like these were he showed how a good friend Takuya was, and Kouji was glad to have friends in a moment like this… not that he would admit it aloud.

"Thank you, Takuya." He finally said with a smile, and looked at the others. "Thank you, guys."

* * *

Tomoko was working, but almost automatically. Her mind was set on her son's well being, and everyone around her could notice that, included her boss. But since she was still doing her work, he wasn't about to scold her. And he wasn't cold-hearted either; he had a son himself, and he would be worried if something had happened to him. And to relieve the poor woman, he told her to take a day off once her son got out of the hospital so that she could organize herself. Unfortunately, he couldn't give her more than that, since she had already taken some days off when her mother had died, and there was a lot of work to do those days. He pitied the poor woman; divorced, sick, raising a son by herself and the recent loss of her mother and the accident of her son. And yet she remained strong.

Tomoko was immensely grateful with her boss for that. Even if it was only a day, she was glad. She would use it to make sure Kouichi was going to be fine when he was left alone in the house while she was at work.

She sighed. She wished that she had someone to take care of her son while she was away. In times like this, she thought what it would be like if she had never divorced Kousei. Sure, she was a practical woman and knew that daydreaming would do nothing for her situation, but she couldn't help it. Maybe she would be able to take a few days off from work. Maybe her younger son, Kouji, would help his brother.

Maybe the accident would have never happened.

Tomoko shook her head. _Stop with the daydreams, woman._ She returned to work, already planning out what she would do to make her son comfortable.

* * *

The last day of his imprisonment —I mean, hospitalization, Kouichi was relieved. He still couldn't talk that well, but at least his vision had improved. But he wasn't allowed to read yet. Damn the symptoms.

He smiled when he saw his mother again. He wasn't able to greet her, but when she approached him, he hugged her as tightly as he could. She returned the hug happily and caressed her son's face.

"Kouichi, I'm glad you're coming home now..." She said. Kouichi just smiled widely at her, not wanting to go through the embarrassment of trying to say something.

Tomoko smiled back at him and then handed him the clothes she had brought for him, a simple T-shirt and a pair of jeans. "I'll go to fill some forms while you change, but _don't_ walk on your own, okay?" Kouichi nodded, saying he understood. After a final smile from her, she left the room and followed the nurse that had accompanied her.

Kouichi somehow managed to put on his clothes by himself without having to stand up. He didn't want to worry his mother more than she already was, and for once he decided to not be stubborn. And in case he had decided to be, there was a nurse there, who was attending the patient in the bed next to him. It was a kid too, but he had been brought there that morning, so they didn't have much time to know each other. Not that they could anyway, because of Kouichi's slurred talking and the tube going down the other boy's throat. They had communicated mainly through expressions. It was a bit difficult, but somehow they understood.

When he had finished dressing, the nurse drew the curtain that divided the room in two aside, so that Kouichi could say good bye to his new friend. She helped him get on a chair that was beside the boy's bed, and with the help of the nurse they could finally "talk". She had helped them to know each other's names, so Kouichi knew that the boy's name was Shou. Writing on a notebook, Kouichi wrote a note.

_It was nice to meet you, Shou. I'm leaving today, but I know you'll be able to go home soon as well. Be strong._

Kouichi handed the notebook to the boy. He could have sworn that there was a tear in his eye. Smiling, Shou started writing something as well. When he was finished, he gave the notebook to Kouichi.

_Thank you, Kouichi. It was a short time, but I'm glad that I could meet you. Be happy from now on, and be brave. Don't worry about me; I'll fly home today._

Kouichi looked at Shou, shocked and confused. In the boy's face there was just a smile. Kouichi looked at the nurse for an answer, but she pretended to be busy with other things, to give the boys space. He looked back at Shou, who was now laying back on the bed.

Kouichi, even with the headache that had been bothering him the last minutes, started to connect the dots: Shou didn't have any hair, he seemed weak and dangerously thin, and what was that damned tube for? Kouichi looked again at the nurse, who didn't say anything, but had a sad expression. He looked at Shou again, who was still smiling. After a moment, he closed his eyes slowly. Kouichi tried to wake him up by shaking his arm; the heart monitor told him that he was still alive, and he could hear him breathing through the tube. But he didn't wake up.

The nurse put a hand on Kouichi's shoulder, making him look at her.

"It's time to go, Kimura-kun. His parents will arrive any minute now." She said, helping him off the chair and onto the wheelchair. Kouichi looked at Shou for a last time. _Farewell, friend._

The nurse —the same one who had told Kouji how was Kouichi doing and who had slipped the elder twin's address and phone number to him— noticed Kouichi's sadness about the fate of the boy. "You helped him, Kimura-kun. He had been depressed the last days, and this morning, when we moved him to the room, is the happiest I have seen him."

The words of the nurse helped him a little. Knowing that he had made someone's last hours of life a bit happier certainly helped with his own depression.

* * *

Kouji was impatient. Today was the day Kouichi would finally go home, and he wouldn't be able to actually talk to him. He had gone every day after school to hear some news about him from the nice nurse, and knew that his mother would take him home and spend all the day with him. He was planning on hiding behind some bushes and hope Kouichi would notice him so he could at least wave at him.

He looked through the glass door of the hospital, and could see his mother and a friend of hers in the reception, probably filling out some forms. And then his brother finally appeared, sitting on a wheelchair pushed by the nice nurse.

Kouji shook his head with a smile. He was actually calling her "the nice nurse" in his head.

It was time to hide. Kouichi, the nurse, his mother and her friend were making their way to the friend's car. Apparently she would give his brother and their mother a ride home. Just before they entered the car, the nurse started listing a few things that would help Tomoko take care of her son. Kouji found it strange, normally that kind of directions would be given before someone left the hospital. But then he realized that she was doing it so that he could greet his brother, who had already spotted him and was grinning. Kouji felt a little embarrassed for getting distracted, so he waved at his brother with a shy smile. Kouichi waved back, discreetly, and then the women proceeded to help him into the car.

Kouji waited until they had left to come out of his hiding place, and walked towards the nurse who was still in the parking lot. "Thank you for all the help with my brother, Fujibayashi-san." He said, bowing in gratitude.

The nurse just smiled. "Don't worry, Minamoto-kun. I'm glad to have helped you and Kimura-kun." She said, and then looked back at the hospital. "I have to go back to work, take care… and I hope you two can work something out."

With that, the nurse left. Kouji stood in the parking lot for a few more minutes before going back to his house.


	2. Truthfulness

_Okay, I'm uploading this chapter today too, and tomorrow I'll continue uploading the remaining chapters~_

* * *

"What kept you busy for so long?" Takuya said when he spotted his blue-eyed friend walking through the park to meet with him. He was leaning against a tree, sitting on the grass. Takuya had decided to stick to Kouji as much as he could during the time Kouichi was delicate, so he was going to his friend's house during the afternoon.

Kouji looked at him, frowning a little. He wasn't really mad at him; he just wasn't in a good mood. He sighed. "I got distracted… I was waiting outside until they came out, then I had to hide in the parking lot."

The goggle-head shrugged and walked towards his friend, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go back, Kouji. We can talk there if you want."

Even if Kouji didn't say anything, it was obvious that he was really worried about Kouichi, and that he wanted to finally meet his mother. Kouichi had promised him to introduce them as soon as he could, and he had to be patient until his brother was well enough. Takuya could see the worry in his eyes and behavior, so he was going to keep him company.

_Because, what's better than my company?_ He thought to himself. _Somehow I'll cheer him up. I have to keep him as upbeat as I can until Kouichi gets better._

Takuya didn't like seeing any of his friends suffering. And now that Kouji was as worried as he was about Kouichi, he would make the elder twin a favor and make Kouji realize that everything was going to be fine.

The trip to the Minamoto house was mostly silent. Takuya had tried to start a conversation a couple of times, but gave up and decided to leave it until they were alone. Once they got to the house, Kouji had to put up his best face and act as if there was nothing wrong. He couldn't let his parents know that there was someone he was worried about, and that that someone was Kouichi.

"Dad, Mom… this is my friend, Kanbara Takuya. I met him a few days ago, and he came to do some homework."

_Straight to the point, as always._ Kanbara bowed as a greeting to Kouji's parents. "It's nice to meet you, my name is Kanbara Takuya, and I go to Kouji's school." Not really, but it would be weird if they were going to 'do homework' and they were from different schools. They also avoided the fact that Takuya was almost a full year younger than Kouji and thus in a lower grade.

Kousei and Satomi were pleased; they were glad that Kouji had made a friend for once. Kousei thought that Takuya was the type of boy who would stick to his son even if he didn't want to. He just hoped that Kouji wouldn't kick Takuya's ass too hard if they ever got in a fight.

Satomi immediately offered their guest —and their son, too— something to eat, but both boys declined the offer, saying they had a lot of homework to do and should better start. Then they went to Kouji's room, their 'homework' being Takuya talking Kouji into believing his brother would be fine soon.

"You know I'm right, Kouji. Just give it time; Kouichi will be able to get out of the house in two weeks, and you'll plan how to introduce you to your mother." Takuya was getting fed up with Kouji's stubbornness, but he was keeping his voice as low as he could so that they wouldn't be discovered.

"I know, but I can't wait two weeks to see him. We've been separated for eleven years, almost twelve; now that he found me, I don't want to be away from him, especially now that he's hurt."

Takuya looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "Kouji, you lived without him _for eleven, almost twelve years_; I'm pretty sure you can survive another two weeks without seeing him."

Kouji shook his head. Takuya simply didn't understand. "I need to be by his side. I can feel how much he's hurting; remember what the nurse told us? Another one of the symptoms is depression, as if he didn't have enough things to be worried over…"

Takuya sighed. Kouji was now near hysterics, and he had to do something to keep him from losing his head. And then an idea popped in his mind. Actually, Izumi had said it first, but no one had really considered it an option until now; it was mostly because, well, it was _technically_ a crime.

"Ne, Kouji… what if we break in his house when your mother's not there?" He said.

Bandana boy just stared at him, with an expression that could be interpreted as 'Takuya, you've gone completely mad.' Or 'Takuya, you're a freaking genius."

"Takuya… it's hard for me to say this, but… you're a freaking genius."

The brunette blushed a little and grinned at the recognition of his friend, though he did notice the sarcastic intonation. "Thank you, but it's not really my idea. Izumi suggested it yesterday while Junpei and I were walking her home."

Kouji shook his head slightly, with a smile on his face. "It's not a bad idea. And actually, we should be of some help to him. He can't be alone much time."

Takuya was really satisfied with the progress he had made with Kouji, until he decided to speak again. "But… we'll have some trouble. First, we can't go into the house. Kouichi will want to open the door, but he's not even allowed to stand up, let alone walk. Second, I don't know my mother's work schedule; I don't know when she leaves or when she comes home. We can be caught easily."

_Damn his thinking-ahead mindset._ Takuya frowned. "But it's perfect! That way we can be with Kouichi, and he won't be alone!"

"Shhhh…!" Kouji threw himself at Takuya and put a hand over his mouth. He was about to push Kouji away until he realized what he had done. "Idiot, don't yell out the secret." Kouji said, whispering, and then stood up.

"Hehe, sorry." Takuya smiled sheepishly and stood up as well. "We can work something out. Look, let's call Kouichi and we'll ask what would be a good time to visit him. I'll make the call so his mother doesn't suspect anything. What do you think?"

Kouji thought for a moment. That seemed like a good plan. "…Okay. Let's do that."

* * *

Kouichi was already in bed. Tomoko was arranging some stuff to make it more comfortable for him, and keeping him from standing up at all, unless absolutely necessary. He sighed; he didn't like to see his mother worried. The guilt was heavy in his chest; the depression that accompanied the concussion wasn't helping either.

"So, Kouichi, I'll leave you food in your room so you don't have to stand up unless you have to go to the bathroom." He could hear his mother, talking to him from out of his room. Her footsteps were light, and he could barely hear her walking to his room. "And don't answer the…"

Tomoko stopped talking suddenly, upon walking into her son's room and looking at his face. She could see sadness in Kouichi's eyes, and was confirmed when Kouichi started crying. Not that he had wanted to; he was holding back the tears since Shou had fallen into a comma that signaled that his life would end soon. Had he already died? Was he still technically alive, his parents by his side, just waiting to see if he would wake up just long enough to say good bye?

And he missed Kouji, too. What had seemed like weeks in the Digital World were actually just a few minutes in their own world. Minutes where he wasn't even conscious. Was he even alive? He only knew that it hadn't been a dream because Kouji had brought him back; because his nurse told him he had tried to visit him.

But he was also remembering what he had done as Duskmon. He had tried to convince himself that he had been controlled by Cherubimon, even after admitting that it was his own fault. But it was a lie, and he was hurt. Deeply. So he couldn't hold his tears back anymore.

Tomoko ran to his side and sat on the edge of the bed. Kouichi tried to avoid her eyes, but she took his cheek gently and made him look at her. "Kouichi, what's wrong?"

Kouichi's eyes wandered towards the bed sheet. It was hard to look at her mother in the eyes; the guilt he was already carrying was increasing, making feel as if he couldn't breathe well.

"…I …there are so many things that are wrong, Mom…" He said slowly, in a low voice, trying to speak coherently, and trying to keep his voice from breaking.

Tomoko's heart broke. The first thing that her son said after the accident and it was this. She felt a tear on her eye, but didn't make any effort to wipe it away.

"Kouichi, what do you mean…?"

For some reason, Tomoko felt a pang of sadness and nostalgia in her heart. Why was she feeling that? What was wrong?

Kouichi sighed. There was no way he would tell her about the Digital World, about being Duskmon. He could tell her about Shou. But… was he able to tell her about Kouji? He stayed in silence, thinking. He decided to start by telling her about Shou. It was the most recent wound in his heart, and was the least suspicious.

"…A boy was taken to my room this morning. His name was Shou, and when I was leaving, he… he…" He was still talking slowly, trying to make his words as clear as he could. It was difficult, and he would rather not do it; but he needed to get everything off his chest. As much as he didn't want to worry his mother, there was no turn back now.

Tomoko could only guess what he was trying to say. Her heart sunk; he had already seen his grandmother die, why did he have to witness this kind of thing? She hugged him tightly, but not too much.

He hugged back. Should he tell her about Kouji? He wondered if it would relieve her, or bring her more pain. He was completely sure that she would be happy to see Kouji, but… what if discovering that he knew about him would make her worried? She would have a lot of questions. She would wonder how did he find out, how did he find Kouji, how did they meet.

_But, that will bring some happiness to her, right? She'll get to know Kouji… Or is it too soon? Maybe I should wait a little more… But in that time she'll only be worried. _

…_Okay, I'll tell her…_

He hadn't even finished thinking that when the first word left his mouth. "Mom..?"

Tomoko looked at him. He looked a bit indecisive, as if he was deciding whether to tell her something or not. Then his eyes started filling with tears.

"Mom… I met Kouji."

At first, Tomoko didn't really register what he was saying at first, and he noticed that. She thought that maybe she had misheard what he had said.

"Mom, I met Kouji." He said, a bit more determined, though his words came out a bit jumbled up. "I met Kouji…" The tears started falling again. This time there was no denying it; Tomoko started crying as well. Her two sons had met, after almost twelve years. She didn't even know what to say, she had lots of questions in her mind. How? When? Why? It was confusing, but in her heart, she was really happy. She hugged Kouichi again, the tears still flowing.

"Kouichi… Kouichi how did you know? How did you find him? Kouichi…"

The boy hugged his mother as tightly as he could. He just wanted to give her a little bit of happiness for the hard life she had.

"Grandma told me… I found him, and he wants to meet you."

Tomoko cupped her son's face with both of her hands. There was now a smile on her face that shined through the tears.

"Kouichi… I'm sorry for not telling you before…"

Kouichi shook his head slightly. "No, don't worry Mom… What's important is that you can see him now, and know him. He's a great person, Mom."

"Ah…" She was going to say something, when the phone started ringing. Drying her tears, she stood up. "I'll come back soon, wait a moment." As she walked out of the room, she wondered who it could be.

"Kimura residence, who is it?"

"Ah…" Takuya hesitated a moment before speaking. "My name's Kanbara Takuya, ma'am. I'm Kouichi's friend from school and I heard of his accident, I just wanted to check on him. Hehe…" His nervous chuckle resonated through the phone. Tomoko smiled. "Of course, Kanbara-kun. Wait a moment, I'll bring him to the phone."

"Thank you, Kimura-san." Takuya and Kouji were sitting in Kouji's room. Kousei and Satomi had told them that they were going to buy some things to make dinner, so they decided to make the call right then. "So, what did she say?" Kouji asked a little nervous.

"She's going to bring Kouichi to the phone… I guess they'll take a while since he isn't supposed to walk." Kouji sighed. "I guess…"

"Kouichi… there's a friend of yours in the phone." Kouichi really wondered who would have called; no one from his school would have done that. "Really? Who is it?"

"Ah… it's Kanbara Takuya-kun." Then it all clicked. Kouichi had given Kouji his phone and address, with help from the nurse. Takuya was calling in Kouji's place so that his mother wouldn't suspect anything. He smiled.

Moments later, Kouichi had stood up and walked towards the small living room, which consisted of a couch, a small T.V. and a little table where the phone was placed. Sitting on the couch, he picked up the phone, his mother sitting by his side.

"Takuya?"

"Ah, Kouichi? How are you, buddy? Eh… Kouji's with me, and we were thinking about going to see you tomorrow after school to see how are you doing, and in the weekend too… You know, we haven't seen you since we came back… But we want to make sure your mother doesn't find out about Kouji…"

Kouichi stayed in silence before talking. "Takuya… she knows."

Takuya's face made Kouji worried. "Takuya..?"

"Kouji… she knows."

Kouji felt silent again. She knew? Kouichi told her? "…Give me the phone." Takuya did as he was told and Kouji talked with his brother. "Kouichi? Are you okay?"

The elder twin sighed. "I am, don't worry." He knew that the next thing Kouji said would be about his mother, and he wasn't wrong. "…Did you tell her?"

Kouichi remained in silence for a moment. "Yes, I did… it would be great if you could come soon. I want to see you, and… I'm sure she wants to see you too."

Tomoko didn't know what to say. If she understood correctly, Kouichi was talking to his brother now. And he was telling him to come. She started getting impatient; she wanted him to come as soon as he could. She was going to see Kouji soon. She was going to see her son soon, after almost twelve years. Kouichi had said that he was a great person; as much as she couldn't get along with her ex-husband, she didn't doubt that he loved their children and had given his best to raise Kouji.

"Okay… I'll wait for you then. Take care, see you later guys."

Her son's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "He'll be coming tomorrow after school and on Saturday and Sunday too. He says that he doesn't want to leave me on my own for much time. You can meet him tomorrow when you come back from work."

It took a while for Kouichi to give that information to his mother. Sure, he was getting better, but his speech was still a bit slurred.

Back at Kouji's house, he was holding Takuya's cell phone in disbelief.

"I'm going to meet my mother… I'm going to meet her tomorrow…"

Takuya was looking at him with a smile, half happy for him and half amused at his face. But he knew that Kouji would get emotional any moment, and he was ready to be there for him. And he was right; Kouji's eyes started filling with tears, though he tried to fight them back. Takuya just placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, waiting for him to calm down.


	3. Times of Joy

_Sorry for the wait, a while month of exams got in the way… but now that I'm on winter break, I'll start uploading the next chapters._

* * *

The morning of the following day —Friday, at last— was even more boring for Kouichi than when he was at the hospital. Now he couldn't even look at the doctors and nurses walking around his room and the hallways. Now there was no boy on the bed next to his. Only walls. He hadn't even eaten that much; ignoring the doctor's instructions, he took out a notebook and a pen and started doodling and scribbling. There were so many thoughts in his mind that he couldn't even focus on one. _Kouji and Mom will finally meet._ _I'm going to see my friends. Everything will be alright._

But was everything alright? He had that feeling in his stomach. Something would happen. Was it something bad, or something good? He thought for a moment. He had felt that before. It was like what he had felt when he was hit by Lucemon's Dead or Alive. It was like what he had felt before dying.

Kouichi shook his head on instinct to get rid of the thought, but that only made his head hurt and get dizzy. He sighed and laid back to try to calm down. He wasn't going to die.

He looked at the clock on his wall. 2:15 p.m. Kouji and the others would arrive between 3:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. Sweating due to the warm weather, Kouichi decided to take a shower before his friends arrived. He knew that it would take a while for him to do it, but in case everyone arrived before he got out, his mother had left the door unlocked.

So he sat on the edge of the bed, and carefully, stood up and started making his way towards the shower. The cool water felt like a blessing to his skin, and it helped him to cool down his overworking head. He got out sooner than he thought, so he went to his room and put on some comfortable clothes. He looked at the clock again and it said 3:00 p.m. Not that bad, now he just had to wait a bit more. Since they were all in different schools, they would probably arrive separately.

He decided to sit on the couch to wait for them, since his room was a mess. He was expecting them to start scolding him for moving out of his bed, but could they really blame him? He was bored, and his room was hot. He needed a break.

Kouichi got lost in his thoughts again. He had already heard Takuya and Kouji's voice on the phone, but he really wanted to see them. All of them. He hadn't seen them since Sunday afternoon, right after his accident. It was already Friday; it had been almost a week since then.

Before he knew it, someone was knocking on the door. He glanced at the clock. 3:25 p.m. Who could be close enough to arrive earlier? He didn't have to wonder for long because then a voice came from the other side of the door. "Kouichi-kun?" It was Izumi.

"The door's open. Come in, Izumi."

His words came out more clearly than the past days. An improvement. The blonde walked in the small apartment and then towards Kouichi. She had been smiling until then, and was about to ask the boy about his health, when she noticed his slightly wet hair. "Kouichi-kun… you took a shower while you were alone?" She wasn't yelling as she would have done with any of the other boys, and her tone was a little bit too gentle to be a scolding. Kouichi just smiled nervously. "Yes, I did. But my room is hot and I was sweating; also, I was really careful. Nothing bad happened."

Izumi just sighed and then sat by his side. "You're impossible." She shook her head slightly with a smile on her face. "Anyway, how are you?"

Kouichi sighed and looked at the floor. "Fine, I guess. Definitely better than when you found me at the hospital." He smiled, ignoring the feeling in his stomach that apparently wasn't going to go away. And it was definitely not nausea, though at times felt like it.

Izumi sighed again. "I'm glad that you're better. Kouji has been really worried about you." It wasn't really necessary that Kouji told them because of how obvious he was. Apparently he wasn't very good at hiding his worry, probably because he had never been so worried about someone else in his life.

"I know… I want him to come so he can see for himself that I'm fine. And also…" Kouichi suddenly got quiet. He wanted him to come so he could meet his mother. He wanted him to come so that both his mother and Kouji could be happy. That's all he wanted.

Izumi put her hand on his shoulder when he stayed in silence for too long. "Kouichi-kun, are you alright?" He got startled and then looked at her. "Yes, I am. Don't worry." She smiled at him and then someone started knocking the door. "Who could it be..?" Izumi said to herself while standing up to open the door. Kouichi would normally stand up himself so that she didn't have to, but he knew she would only get mad and decided to not create an unnecessary problem.

Izumi opened the door and in front of her Junpei and Tomoki were standing. The older boy had said that since he was closer to Tomoki's school he would pick him up so that they could go together. Izumi let them in and both boys walked towards Kouichi.

"Hey buddy, how're you doing?" Junpei asked, taking a chair from its place by the table after realizing that the other seat on the couch belonged to Izumi. Tomoki did the same. "Kouichi-san, are you feeling better?"

Kouichi smiled. Yes, these were his friends; their attitude was enough to get him to forget about the strange feeling in his stomach. "I'm better now, thanks. What about you guys? What have you been doing?" He asked looking at his three comrades.

"Well, school." Junpei said, shrugging. "Though this year I'm having better luck with making friends, I gotta say."

"Same here." Izumi continued. "I already have a bunch of friends who want me to teach them how to cook Italian food!"

"I'm having luck too! I hang out with Katsuharu and Teppei at lunch, and some kids are joining us too!" Tomoki added.

Kouichi smiled. "I'm glad that you guys are doing better." He couldn't find any other words. While he was happy that his friends had a lot of improvement in their lives in a few days, it wasn't the same for him. His relationships at school were that of acquaintances at most; and now someone who had considered an actual friend, even for only a few hours, was likely dead.

"But I see you are getting better, Kouichi." Junpei said, noticing that he had gotten lost in thought.

"Ah? Oh, yes… yesterday I could finally start speaking coherently." Kouichi said. Then yet another person started knocking on the door. Tomoki stood up this time and opened the door. "Takuya-oniichan, Kouji-san, come in." Tomoki said happily, now that all the gang was there.

"Hi guys!" Takuya greeted joyfully. Kouji just walked into the house with a small smile on his face. Upon seeing Kouichi, his smile disappeared for a moment while he analyzed Kouichi. He was out of the bed, but he seemed to be doing fine. His smile returned as he walked towards his brother and hugged him. "Kouichi… I'm glad you're fine now." He said in a whisper. Kouichi returned the hug. "Thank you, Kouji… If you hadn't found me, I wouldn't be here." He whispered as well, for a moment forgetting that they had company. Their friends had smiles on their faces, and maybe one or two had a tear threatening to fall down. They all had gone through so much, and were happy and relieved that everything had ended well.

Junpei looked around the apartment. It was small, and it wasn't stuffed of things. The kitchen, dining room and living room were all cramped together in a single room, and he could only see two more doors, probably leading to the bathroom and to the rooms, if there was more than one. Was this Kouichi's life? Junpei thought about his own house; it was a two-story house, with a garden, his father had a car, there were at least three T.V.'s and two video game consoles. But Kouichi's house…

Izumi was looking at the two brothers. Kouichi seemed to be really happy just to be able to be with his brother. She, too, had noticed the small size of the boy's apartment and wondered if there was nothing else that he might wish for. Something for himself. As far as she knew, all the 'Duskmon' trouble had begun because he didn't want his mother to suffer. Did he ever think of himself at all?

Tomoki was innocent enough to not go through any of these thoughts. Sure, he noticed that the house was small, but it was still a home, right? Since his adventures in the Digital World, he had forgotten all about being selfish and having lots of things.

Takuya wasn't that innocent. He had noticed too. But like the others, he decided to keep his mouth shut —for once. He had heard Kouichi's story; he only lived with his mother. The Japanese society wasn't as accepting as he or his friends were. Kouichi's mother was divorced, and it was hard for a divorced woman to get a good job.

Kouji barely had any time to think about that. He was just thinking of his brother and his mother, he wanted to see them. His thoughts since the night before had revolved about that. But there was one thought that he didn't want to pay attention to after it occurred to him. Did Kouichi want to meet their father too? He had never mentioned that. Kouji had presumed that it was because unlike him, Kouichi was only thinking about his mother's happiness. Kouji felt like a selfish person, and that caused him to shove the thought aside.

After a moment, the twins finally left each other's arms. No one said anything; everyone knew that they needed each other, now more than ever. Kouji sat on the floor beside Takuya and in front of his brother. Kouichi looked at his friends. "Guys, my mother left some food in the fridge, since you're coming straight from school." He said. Kouji nodded and stood up to get the food, while Junpei took his backpack and started looking for something. "Hey guys, I also brought some things from home so we can eat!" As expected, there were several chocolates and other candies that he had in a bag that placed on the small table. At the same time, Kouji came back with a few plates with rice and placed them on the dining table. Takuya then stood up to help him with some side dishes and drinks.

After everything was on the table, Kouji helped Kouichi into one of the chairs. Everyone then occupied a chair and got prepared to eat. "Itadakimasu…!" Everyone started eating, some of them fast —like Junpei, Izumi and Takuya—, while the others took their time. They started talking with each other, about the things that had happened during the week. Kouichi told them of things that he had seen in the hospital, remembering to keep quiet about Shou. It wouldn't be good to comment about something sad when his friends were having a good time.

"So, Kouichi… when does your mother come back?" Takuya's question brought him back from his thoughts. "Ah, well… it's Friday, so she'll probably arrive around 8:00." He looked at the clock. 4:32 p.m. He then looked at Kouji smiling. "In three hours and a half." Kouji smiled as well. He was going to meet his mother in three hours and a half.

By then they had finished eating, and Izumi and Tomoki decided to wash the dishes while Junpei helped Kouichi back to the couch. Takuya and Kouji moved some of the chairs near the couch. After a while, everyone was sitting, eating the candies Junpei had brought and just talking. "Kouji, Kouichi, shouldn't we think of a way to introduce Kouji to your mother?" Junpei asked. "It wouldn't be a special moment if she just walks in and sees him."

"Do you have any ideas, Junpei?" Takuya asked; it wasn't a bad idea after all.

"Maybe Kouji-san could hide in the room, and when Kimura-san comes in, he walks out." Tomoki suggested.

"That sounds good. Kouichi-kun can stay here and tell her that Kouji's here and then he gives a signal so he can walk out." Izumi added.

"And we can stay in the room as well, so they can have their reunion in private." Takuya said. Junpei, Izumi and Tomoki nodded and then everyone looked at the twins. "What do you think?"

Kouichi and Kouji looked at each other for a moment, then smiled and nodded as well. "We like the idea." Both replied.

"Then it's decided. At 7:50 p.m., we'll go hide in the room and wait." Takuya said as final words on the matter.

The following hours were full of laughter, jokes, and remembering the 'old times' in the Digital World. They could have sworn that they had spent around a year there, but only eleven minutes had passed in the Real World. They shared theories about that, and everyone agreed that one minute in their world was the same as a month in the Digital World. That meant that many years had passed already there.

The neighbors were rather surprised. They knew Kouichi well; he was a nice kid, but he had never brought any friends to his house. Sometimes, when he was younger, they could see him playing alone in the park nearby. And suddenly, five other kids had arrived at his house, and they could hear their laughter. They were happy for the poor boy that had spent his childhood mostly in solitude.

But the neighbors didn't pay a lot of attention to the appearance of the kids that were visited him, or they would have realized that one of them was Kouichi's twin.

* * *

Tomoko found herself working better than any other day. Her co-workers could note a difference in her; she was radiant, and she didn't seem tired at all, unlike the other days. They thought that it was because her son was getting better really quick; the people closer to her hadn't expected the boy to start talking as clearly as she told them in his first day out of the hospital. She was probably excited to go home, to see her son and check on him.

But in fact, she was excited not only because of that, but because she was going to meet Kouji for the first time in years. She wanted to see him, to hug him, to know him. He would probably be very much like Kouichi in looks, but she knew, since they were babies, that their personalities were really different.

So, when it was time to leave, Tomoko almost literally jumped out of her place and ran towards her home. When she finally arrived, she stopped in front of the door and breathed deeply. She could hear a faint giggling that seemed to come from a girl, and a door shutting. Then, she opened the door.

She found Kouichi sitting on the couch, a smile on his face. "Welcome home, Mom." Tomoko smiled at him and sat by his side, hugging him. "Thank you, Kouichi." He hugged back, and then looked at her. "Ready?"

Tomoko looked at him for a moment, and then nodded. "Stand up Mom, and close your eyes." He said, at the time he stood up. Tomoko did as her son said, and waited.

"Kouji, just go out." Izumi whispered.

"Come on Kouji, she's waiting." Takuya said.

Kouji was frozen. He wanted to open the door, but he couldn't. He had been waiting for that moment for so long… And then, his thoughts were interrupted by Takuya, who pushed him through the door. Kouichi looked at his brother and chuckled before holding out his hand to him. Kouji was blushing in embarrassment, but took his brother's hand and walked closer to his mother. _She is beautiful, as beautiful as in the photo I have._ He started tearing up. "…Mom?"

Tomoko opened her eyes. He was there. Kouji was there, standing in front of her. She immediately hugged him tightly. "Kouji, Kouji… You're here, you're really here…!" They hugged the other tightly, tears of happiness going down their cheeks.

Kouichi was looking at them, with a big smile on his face and crying of happiness as well. Finally, he had finally done it. His mother was happy, his brother was happy; that's all he could ask for.

"Kouichi… come here…" Tomoko looked at the elder twin and he approached them, joining in the hug. The three hugged tightly, enjoying the moment.

The other four people in the house were spying on them, having opened the door just enough to look through. Junpei was against it at first, but he wanted to see the outcome of Kouichi's efforts. The poor boy had literally _died_ because he wanted his mother to be happy. That was certainly admirable.

Everyone remained like that for a few more minutes, until Junpei lost his balance and made everyone else fall down. Tomoko and the twins looked at them and laughed. Drying her tears, Tomoko asked. "How about I make dinner for you all before you have to leave?"

At first everyone was a bit hesitant to accept, but after a while they agreed. Izumi offered to help her, and Tomoki did the same, saying that he wanted to cook again. Kouji and Takuya did offer too, but Junpei held them back, reminding them of the fact that they knew nothing about cooking. Kouichi chuckled at this, and Junpei told him to never try any food that they cooked.

After a while, dinner was ready, and everyone sat at the table. They all thanked Tomoko and started eating. It was a nice dinner, the kids were chatting with each other and with Tomoko, who was glad that Kouichi had such good friends.

Takuya looked at the clock and saw that it was almost 10:00 p.m. "We should go home now, before it gets really late…"

Tomoko stood up. "Well, I must thank you for coming to see Kouichi. I'm glad that he has friends like you." The kids blushed a little at the recognition. "Kouichi is a good friend, Kimura-san, he has done a lot for us already." Takuya said. Tomoko looked at her elder son. "And, Kouichi… thank you for finding your brother." Kouichi just nodded, and looked at Kouji. "Thank you for finding me, Nii-san…" Tomoko almost squealed when she heard that.

Minutes later, everyone was on their way home. Junpei would accompany Tomoki home, and Takuya would walk Izumi to her own. Kouji went in a completely different direction, so he would go on his own. Tomoko had warned them to be careful on their way home.

* * *

Kouji arrived home near 11:00 p.m. He had already told their parents that he would be late, but he didn't tell them where he was going. As he stepped into his house, it suddenly seemed larger than normal. He looked around, and realized just how big his house was compared to Kouichi's apartment.

"Kouji?"

His father's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "Are you okay? Where were you?" Kouji blinked, and then looked down. "At a friend's house." He said as he walked upstairs to his room.

Kousei knew something was wrong with Kouji. But knowing him, it would be better to leave him alone. If it was something that he couldn't deal with on his own, he would ask for help; or so he hoped. Kouji was really stubborn.

Meanwhile, Kouji was laying on his bed, thinking. Was it fair? Was it fair that he had asked to meet his mother and that he had gotten it, and yet Kouichi hadn't even mentioned his father? He had to do something about it. Maybe… he should tell his father the truth.


	4. Times of Grief

_Continuing with the re-uploading of the chapters!_

* * *

Kousei didn't know if he should be proud of Kouji for making friends, or concerned about the expression on his son's face when he arrived home. Maybe he should check on him, though maybe he was tired from the trip back to the house and was already sleeping; or maybe his attempt would be met with indifference or annoyance. It was worth the try.

So, he left the book he was reading on the couch, and walked upstairs. Satomi was already sleeping, so he tried to be quiet. He finally stood in front of Kouji's door, and knocked softly before opening the door. He knew his son liked his privacy, but he was only eleven —almost twelve— years old. As a parent he could walk in at any moment he wanted.

"Kouji? Are you asleep?"

The boy sat up on his bed, looking at his father. "I'm awake. I can't sleep."

Kouji had decided to tell his father. As much as he was angry with him for having lied, he deserved to know what had happened to Kouichi… and that he knew that his mother wasn't dead.

"Is something bothering you?" Kousei asked, sitting on the edge of the bed. He wasn't that good at dealing with the emotions of a pre-teenager, but he would try.

A thought formed in Kouji's mind. _Now he's worried, right? What about all the times he told me my mother was dead? _He shook his head. "Actually, yes. And it involves you." Kousei looked at him a little surprised, not expecting what he had heard. Kouji didn't dare to look at his father's eyes yet, afraid that he might discover what it was.

"Then, what is it? Tell me so I can help you." It wasn't often that Kouji would talk about his problems, so Kousei wasn't about to ignore this chance. Kouji stayed in silence for a while.

"It's about Mom. My birth mother."

Kousei was even more surprised by that. Had he discovered the truth? Had he seen her? Had he met her? And if he had… he had probably discovered Kouichi, too. When he realized he had stayed in silence for too long, he cleared his throat. "What about her?" He said, but he sounded cold rather than calm as he had intended. Kouji's expression decayed a little when he heard it, but continued nonetheless.

"Kouichi found me."

There were about two minutes of complete silence, Kousei looking at his son with a shocked, but serene expression, while Kouji looked at his father with a sad, but aloof expression.

"So you know now. Have you met her?"

There wasn't much that Kousei could say. If Kouji already knew, then there was no point on trying to hide it. And, Kouji was old enough to understand why, right?

"Today. I was at their house, but I met Nii-san on Sunday." As much as Kouji wanted to call his father out on his lie, Kouichi's well-being was more important. "In fact, I met him at the hospital. Kouichi fell downstairs at Shibuya Station and suffered a concussion."

Kousei was surprised by the calmness of Kouji's voice. Though it probably meant that Kouichi was alright. "Is he al—"

"He almost died, Dad!"

It seemed that the surprises wouldn't end for Kousei. He was taken aback by Kouji's tears and yelling. "He almost died and you wouldn't have known if he hadn't found me. I think that for a moment, he was really dead. He said that my voice was what gave him the strength to come back."

Kousei didn't know what to do while he looked at his younger son crying. It was awkward; it had been a long time since he had dealt with a crying Kouji. He sighed in defeat, and waited for him to calm down.

"I want you to meet him." Kouji said suddenly. "He almost died in his effort to introduce me to my mother, and since I met him, he has never asked about you. But I know he wants to, so I'm asking you to meet him."

Kousei thought for a moment. Of course he wanted to meet his son! But he just didn't know how to express it. "When..? I… I want to meet him too…"

Kouji smiled just the littlest bit, but didn't let Kousei see it. "I'm going back to his house tomorrow. You could come with me."

"…I can't. There's an important meeting tomorrow and I have to be there early."

Kouji rolled his eyes. Work, as always. "Then what about in the afternoon? After you're done with all of that stuff."

Kousei nodded. "Okay. In the afternoon is it."

This time Kouji smiled at him widely. "Thanks, Dad. It will mean a lot to him."Kousei smiled as well. "Then, go to sleep. You have to be up early to go visit your brother." The father stood up and walked towards the door. "And Kouji… I'm really sorry for the lie."

Kousei closed the door after himself and went to his room. Satomi had woken up because of Kouji's crying, but she hadn't made sense of what he had said. "Kousei…? Is everything alright with Kouji?"

The man sat on the bed and sighed. "He knows…. And I'm going to meet Kouichi tomorrow after work."

Kouji didn't bother calling Kouichi. His mother had probably made him go to bed by now, and he didn't want to interrupt his rest. And it would make for a nice surprise

Tomoko woke Kouichi up somewhat early. It was 7:30 a.m., and she had to leave for work. Normally she left him sleep all he wanted on Saturday, but he was going to have visits. It took a while, but Kouichi eventually woke up. Tomoko left after telling him to be careful while dressing up and that his breakfast was on the table.

Kouichi was still half-asleep, so he didn't get to say "thank you". Sighing, he started getting ready for his visitors.

At around 9:00 a.m. Izumi arrived. It didn't surprise Kouichi; none of the boys seemed to be the type to wake up early, and Kouji lived too far away. Half an hour later Kouji arrived, and during the next hour the rest of the boys got there.

Everything seemed normal; they ate, they talked, and overall were enjoying their friendship and the fact that Kouichi was alive. Kouji certainly enjoyed seeing his brother happy, and couldn't wait until his father got there so that they could finally meet.

And out of nowhere —around 12 p.m. — the kids' cell phones started ringing.

"What is it— Ophanimon?!" Takuya and the others were certainly surprised. None of them expected another call, even less this soon. Kouichi, having no cell phone of his own, looked at his brother's.

"The Digital World is in danger. Will you fight, or you won't?"

"Of course we will help!" Takuya replied, and everyone promptly selected 'Yes.' "Arrive at Shibuya Station before 13:30 p.m."

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Takuya stood up. "Wait." Kouji stood up as well. "What about Kouichi? He can't go and we can't leave him alone." Takuya looked at Kouichi and then back at Kouji. "That's true, but…"

"I'm going."

Kouichi stood up as well. "But, Kouichi…" Kouji started. "No 'buts', Kouji. I might not have received a message, but I'm Löwemon's partner, just like you're Wolfmon's. I'm going too."

"But what about Kimura-san? We can't just disappear like that." Said Izumi. "She's right; we don't want her to worry even more." Added Tomoki.

"You arrived from the Digital World eleven minutes after you left, and my mother gets home until five. I think we have plenty of time." Kouichi said. He wanted to go, just like the others. Not even a concussion was going to stop him.

The others looked at each other and then at Kouichi. "Then we'll go. Together." Takuya smiled at Kouichi and he smiled back.

Everyone left the house and made their way to the station. Kouichi had to be careful to avoid tripping or losing his balance. The difficult part was that there were lots of people at the station during those hours, and they weren't aware of Kouichi's situation. The trip made Kouichi dizzy, but he was fine for the most part. At last, they finally arrived at Shibuya Station with a few minutes to spare, and took the elevator to the Trailmon station.

Kouichi looked around. He had wanted to know how it looked like. He imagined the dozens of kids that had received Ophanimon's message.

"Kouichi, let's board before these guys leave." Kouji said, bringing his twin out of his thoughts. Kouichi followed, and then the Trailmon took off. However, they hadn't noticed that one of the Trailmon had left before they had even arrived.

Soon enough, the Trailmon shook violently, making the kids fall down and signaling that they were entering the Digital World. The cell phones became digivices, and out of Kouji's a ray of light emerged towards Kouichi, giving him his own.

There was no greeting from Ophanimon this time. But the kids noticed that his Spirits were already within the digivices.

In almost no time, they reached Flame Terminal, where Bokomon and Neemon were waiting for them. They had barely gotten off the Trailmon when Bokomon was suddenly hugging one of Takuya's legs. "The Legendary Warriors are back! It's been so long since you left to the Human World and now we need you again…!"

This surprised the kids, but Neemon kind of filled them in. "We need the humans again~ There's something evil~ very very mean~"

Bokomon promptly cleared his throat and regained his composure. "What Bakamon here tries to say…" "My name is Neemon, not Bakam— ouch!" "Is that there's a new enemy and we need the Legendary Warriors to defeat him!" Bokomon said excitedly.

"Well, if there's a new enemy, of course we're going to fight him." Tomoki added, calmly. It couldn't be worse than Lucemon, right?

"And what about the other humans who— ouch!"

"Hey, what other humans?" Junpei asked. Bokomon cleared his throat once again. "Some humans arrived hours before, and some Digimon were waiting for them, too." The kids looked at each other. "I wonder who those kids are… Anyway, we should get going and start looking for this evil Digimon." Everyone agreed with Takuya; they had already saved the Digital World before, there was no doubt that they would do the same this time.

Bokomon looked at them a bit concerned. He had heard from Löwemon that Kouichi was alright, and he was glad that apparently the boy was now physically in the Digital World. But he didn't want to mention the place their new enemy came from. It would probably affect him more than he would let the others know, and he didn't want that to happen —at least not so soon. If what he had heard from the kids that arrived before was correct, then they wouldn't welcome Kouichi's help that easily.

* * *

"Agh! I'm tired of walking!" Daisuke whined. Miyako gave him a not so hard slap on the back of his head. "Stop whining! Daisuke, you act like a baby sometimes."

"Daisuke, I'm hungry!"

"I'm hungry too, Iori…"

Miyako sighed. "Then let's take a rest. I can't believe you're such babies…" She shook her head. It was so hard to be the oldest in the group. "Miyako-san, my mother prepared ohagi…" Before Iori knew it, Miyako had taken the bento box from his hands and started eating along with Hawkmon.

"Good work, Iori." Daisuke whispered, and everyone followed her example and started eating.

After a while, everyone had finished eating and they were laying on the grass, resting. Iori, however, decided to take a walk with Armadimon. This Digital World was different from the one he knew, and it had a strange way of entering. Just that morning his team had received a strange e-mail on their D-Terminal, accompanied by a woman's voice who asked them if they would fight for the Digital World. Then the voice had instructed them to go to Shibuya Station, and then they saw those strange Digimon, the Trailmon. How many new things would they discover?

Then he heard it. It was a battle.

* * *

Takuya's team was walking through the village, looking around for any sign of possible hostile Digimon. They were already giving up hope of anyone appearing in the Flame Area, when the ground started moving. From a crack on the ground, a large figure appeared. It took some seconds for the dust to settle, and then they could recognize their enemy. "Ice Devimon?!"

"Wasn't he scanned?"

"He should have been purified!"

"What's going on here?!"

"Instead of worrying about your pathetic methods of fighting, you should be worried about the way I'm going to eat your data!"

Everyone looked at Ice Devimon. It would be a tough battle, but they were in the Flame Area, so they had an advantage against him. Everyone evolved, some chose the human spirit and others chose the beast spirit.

Then the battle started.

* * *

Iori located the source of the battle sounds. He found six Digimon he had never seen, and one that he could barely recognize, but he wasn't sure. "That's Ice Devimon, dagyaa~" Informed Armadimon. "He's really strong, I hope they'll fine, dagyaa~!" Iori was hiding behind a large rock, and could see how the battle was going. And after a while, he could see that the six Digimon were losing.

"It's really strange; those Poyomon said we're in the Flame Area, that should make Ice Devimon weaker." Said Iori. "Should we help them, Iori?"

The boy looked at the battle. "I don't think we could be of much help, Armadimon. Those Digimon seem stronger and yet they're losing."

Suddenly they heard a yell of pain. One of the Digimon was captured by Ice Devimon. The others were trying hard to free him, but the evil Digimon didn't seem to be affected by any attacks. Iori could see how the black, lion themed Digimon tried to free himself, but to no avail. After a moment, he stopped moving.

_Did he faint? _

A strange circle of data surrounded the Digimon, who then transformed into a human boy. Iori was astonished, he looked at the others. _Are they humans too?_ He returned his gaze at the fainted boy. Ice Devimon looked at him with a devilish grin. "I think this human boy's data will be delicious."

* * *

Kouji was beyond furious.

"Let him go! Let him go!"

He jumped at Ice Devimon, attacking his other arm. The Fallen Angel Digimon growled and threw the Hybrid to the ground. "You bastard!" He screamed, and then threw Kouichi's motionless body towards the rock where Iori was hiding, and left through the crack on the ground.

"Kouichi!"

Garmmon devolved and the younger twin ran to where his elder brother laid unconscious. "Kouichi!" Iori could hear his broken voice and his tears. All the Warriors surrounded the brothers, and Kouji kept calling his brother, waiting for him to open his eyes. "Kouichi, please wake up… Nii-san..."

Kouichi opened his eyes a little. "Kouji… sorry. I wanted to meet Dad, too. Tell him I love him. Tell Mom that I'm grateful for everything she has done for me, and that I love her. And I love you too, Kouji… thank you guys, for everything…"

Tears fell down Kouichi's eyes as he closed them, and his body started dissolving while laying in his brother's arms. Everyone was still too shocked to react. They only saw how bits of data disappeared into the air.

Iori was devastated. He didn't know this boy and yet, he felt like his death was a personal loss. It felt like when Oikawa had died. What was their relation?

Kouji froze when the last of the data disappeared. His brother had died, now for real. He looked at his now empty hands, muttering his brother's name. Now his father wouldn't meet Kouichi. His mother would be devastated. And he… he was alone. His brother was gone now.

"Kouichi… Kouichi… Kouichi!" Kouji doubled over in pain. "Nii-san!" His screams could be heard through the village, and Iori could feel the boy's emotions creeping on his skin. "Iori.. are you okay?" Armadimon asked, worried for his partner. "Let's go.." He muttered, and started running away, back to his team.


	5. Mourning and Grieving

Hikari had fallen asleep on the grass, thanks to the relaxing breeze that went across the Flame area. However, something disturbed her sleep, making her wake up almost immediately. She could feel someone's pain. Someone was suffering way too much, and that was affecting her. Tailmon noticed this and remained near her partner, trying to offer some comfort. Takeru noticed as well. "Hikari-chan? Is everything alright?" He said, placing a hand on her shoulder. She shook her head. "Someone's suffering."

In that moment, Iori got to the place where his friends were. He was agitated, and by his expression, he was terribly scared. Or was it another emotion?

"Iori-kun, are you alright?" Ken walked to his side. The boy seemed to have been running, and was trying to get his breath back. "A boy, he… That Digimon boy died."

The oldest kids looked at each other, concerned. Hikari seemed lost in thought, looking at the direction from which Iori had come. "A Digimon boy? What do you mean?" Asked Daisuke. "Maybe a humanoid Digimon?"

Iori shook his head. "No. There were human kids that could evolve into Digimon! They were fighting Ice Devimon and one of them died!"

He seemed to be fighting back tears. As everyone remained in silence, a faint scream could be heard. "What was that?" Someone asked while everyone looked around in confusion. "It might be the boy's younger brother."

Ken felt a pang of pain. He didn't know who these people were, but he now felt like they had something in common. It might be a sad thing, but it was true. Hikari, on the other hand, couldn't bring herself to empathize with that person. She knew he was hurting, but there was something else that she didn't like.

"Where are they, Iori?" Daisuke asked, and the younger boy guided them to the place where he had seen the group. They hid behind the large rock just like Iori had done, and they could see a black-haired guy kneeling on the floor, surrounded by four other kids and he seemed to be the one crying in pain. His sobs were broken and afflicted. Ken could identify even more.

Hikari knew that there was something slightly familiar about the mourning boy. But there was also something dark about the person who had just died. She was sure he was related to darkness, but there was something that wasn't the same as how she had felt it before, though she didn't want to acknowledge it. _Darkness is darkness._

"Should we approach them?" Ken whispered, evaluating the situation. The other group didn't seem to be in a favorable position, and would actually need some help.

"Maybe… thought maybe we should wait a little, until he has calmed down." Takeru suggested.

"We shouldn't be spying on them during a moment like this." Iori said. Of course, he had spied on them first, but he didn't know that someone would die.

* * *

Takuya wasn't sure of what to do. The first time Kouichi had died, they were in the middle of a battle, and his wish had been that they protected their world; there had been no time for mourning. But now it was different; they had just arrived and they didn't even know who their enemy was! Everything was so messed up, and Takuya didn't know what to do to help Kouji, who was crying his heart out.

The others seemed pretty distraught as well. It all happened so fast. Normally Kouichi was pretty strong; probably stronger than both himself and Kouji, he thought. Was it because of his recent injury? It probably was; and that last hit was also pretty hard, especially since he had devolved. Takuya looked at the 'stupid giant rock'.

And upon looking at it, he noticed some spying eyes. He frowned and stepped closer. "Who's there?! Come out now!"

"Damn it, they found us..!"

"Daisuke don't yell!"

"It's useless, they've found us."

"Come out before I go looking for you!" Takuya yelled. He didn't want anyone spying on them in that moment. Couldn't they leave them to mourn in peace?

Slowly, six kids accompanied by a Digimon each one, walked out from behind the damned rock. "Who are you and what are you doing here?!"

Daisuke stepped forward, a frown appearing on his face. "Shouldn't we be the ones asking that?! Who the hell are you?!"

After a moment, Takuya seemed to calm down and sighed. "We're the Legendary Warriors. We came back to the Digital World to save it… and right now, we've lost someone really important for us." He stepped aside to let the other group see his friend in mourning. Some faces decayed into an empathetic and sad face, some others into some sort of respectful, serious face.

"Now, who are you? What are you doing here?" Takuya asked. He was now calmer, his face displaying just a slight part of all the sadness that he was probably feeling in that moment.

Daisuke was still confused about all of this. _Legendary Warriors? What does that mean?_ However, he did understand what they were going through, and decided to leave the questions for later. "We're the Chosen Children, and we received a strange message, asking if we would fight for the Digital World again. So we came."

"A message… then probably Ophanimon thought that we would need help to save the Digital World." Takuya mused out loud.

After a moment of thinking, Takuya spoke again. "Could you give us the rest of the day to properly mourn our friend? After that, we can talk more about this."

The Chosen Children looked at each other and then nodded. "Sure thing. Where do we meet?" Takeru replied.

Takuya looked around. "Take a Trailmon at Flame Terminal, and go to Forest Terminal. You'll probably arrive there by morning; of course, if you're lucky and you can make the Trailmon do that. Otherwise you'll have to stop at Soyokaze Village, with the Floramon. We'll stop by in our way to Forest Terminal, so we can meet either there or at the Terminal."

Ken nodded. "Then we'll leave now. See you then."

After the Chosen Children had returned to Flame Terminal, Takuya went back to his friends. Kouji had calmed down a little, and somehow had let Izumi hold him close to offer at least some comfort.

Takuya knelt in front of his friend, who apparently hadn't cared at all about the other humans that were in the Digital World, and put a hand over his shoulder. "We should stay here today. Let's have a proper funeral for Kouichi."

The five kids and two Digimon formed a line in front of the rock, the place where Kouichi had died. Kouji now despised that rock, even if the rock hadn't done anything more than be a rock and stay on its place. The Digimon that had witnessed the fight stood respectfully on the sides.

It was twilight when Kouji stepped forward and started writing on the rock with some sort of paint that Bokomon had prepared.

_Here died Kimura Kouichi, Legendary Warrior of Darkness._

_Beloved Friend, Brother, and Son._

_April 13, 20XX_

Tears were trailing down Kouji's face as he wrote it. His brother had died for real. How would he explain that to their mother once they were back? And to his father, who expected to meet him?

Kouji went back to his place beside Takuya, who meanwhile had started a fire between the rock and them. They all sat down around the fire in silence, and remained like that until it became night. The silence was surrounding them; the wind was calm, and the three moons could be seen rising on the horizon.

"He… He was an awesome person." Takuya started, seeing as everyone was silent. He knew that they were still shocked, he was as well. Why had it happened so fast? However, he wanted to remember good things about Kouichi.

"Indeed. He was always thinking of others first; even if we only knew him for a short period of time, it's obvious that he was a selfless person." Izumi continued. The girl admired that part of him.

"He was also really strong." Tomoki added. "He could defeat Cherubimon's copy by himself while the rest of us were beaten badly."

"Kouichi was brave as well. The way he saved us from Lucemon's attack… he didn't hesitate." Junpei thought aloud.

"I agree with you, children. When he discovered that he was just a soul here in the Digital World, he was afflicted by it, but he knew that there was something more important to do." Bokomon said, looking down at the flames. _Maybe if I had told them earlier…_

Neemon stayed in silence. As silly as he was, he recognized the seriousness of the situation. He would miss Kouichi too. After meditating for a moment, he said just three words. "He was nice."

Everyone looked at Kouji. He was still crying in silence, being too tired to continue screaming; but it didn't hurt any less. "He was an idiot. He didn't think of himself at all. He never did…" Takuya was about to hit him on the face for calling Kouichi an idiot; but he knew better. Kouji just wasn't good dealing with this kind of emotions, and this was the second time in the same week that Kouichi had died. And this time, it seemed like there would be no miracle.

"But…"

Takuya returned his gaze at Kouji. "I am glad I met him. I met my mother; but I'll never get over the fact that I could never get him to meet Dad. I owe him so much, and I'll never get the chance to thank him enough."

The silence governed them once again, as they stared at the fire.

"I'm sure he went to heaven."

Tomoki's innocent statement caused Izumi to start crying. She had tried not to, because she would only be a load. The one who deserved to cry was Kouji; he was the one with the most pain. And yet those words made her realize that they weren't going to see Kouichi again, and she couldn't hold the tears back anymore. The three older boys didn't seem to know what to do. Should they leave her alone, or should they offer some comfort to her? None of them were too good with that.

And then Tomoki went and hugged his sister. He felt a little responsible for making her cry, because even if he had intended no harm, it had been his words that had caused it.

* * *

Daisuke and his team had reached Flame Terminal quickly. They asked the Trailmon to give them a ride to Forest Terminal. And then…

"Huh? Are you going to spend the night in the Digital World? Wouldn't you rather go back to your human homes?"

"We can do that? The Pagumon over there told us that we would be stuck here until we save the Digital World." Ken confessed. "Meh, what are they going to know? The Trailmon are the ones who know about these things, after all we're the ones coming and going between the two worlds." The kids and the Digimon looked at each other. "Well, I guess that makes sense." Miyako said, and they decided to go back home for the night.

"Shouldn't we tell the other group?" Takeru asked.

"I'm pretty sure that they would rather stay here during the night." Iori said. "They said they wanted to have a funeral, right?"

Everyone stayed in silence for most part of the ride. However, there was something that had been bothering them since they have met them, but no one had stopped to discuss it due to the circumstances.

"What are they? Why do they transform into Digimon?" Ken mused. It was a strange concept for them.

"This is all so strange." Miyako said. "They're weirdos."

"I don't think you should say that, Miyako-san. Probably we're weirdos for them as well." Iori still felt empathetic towards the other group. What was the similitude between Oikawa and that boy?

* * *

It was 5:00 p.m. Tomoko was already making her way home, and she was in a hurry. She had a bad feeling since a couple hours before, and she hurried to her house to make sure Kouichi was alright.

When she got there, she couldn't hear the noise of the kids having fun, and got worried. She opened the door as fast as she could and discovered an empty house.

She looked around for a note that said that they had gone somewhere. She knew Kouichi would grow bored of being locked up soon and might convince his friends of leaving for a while. When she didn't find any note she looked in the blocks around, but still, not a single hint of them.

She walked back home. _Are they okay? Where did they go? They left on their own because the house was locked. I hope they didn't go far, I hope Kouichi's okay…_

Just as she arrived to her apartment, she noticed a familiar man sitting inside a car parked just in front. She got a bit closer and… it was Kousei.


	6. Visions

Hikari arrived to her house, tired. _Who are those kids? One of them died, right?_ She felt kind of sick. She could feel all the sadness that the boy was suffering._ Why? Why am I feeling this? What is the connection?_ As Hikari fell asleep, she could only feel the pain intensify.

She found herself in a dark place, and immediately, out of instinct, started panicking. She closed her eyes and put her hands over her ears, trying to block out the darkness. She stood still for some time. Seconds? Minutes? Hours? She didn't know. She just wanted to leave the place.

And then, she realized that the darkness wasn't painful to her. It wasn't hostile. She slowly opened her eyes, and uncovered her ears. It was peaceful. She even felt comforted; but there was an air of sadness in that place. What was it? She could feel that someone was there with her, so she tried looking around, but only could see a shadow that promptly ran away.

"Wait! Who are you?!" Hikari yelled while running, trying to catch up with the shadow. They needed help, she knew it.

The shadow stopped until they reached some place that was considerably darker but at the same time a light seemed to surround them.

"Who are you? Do you need help? What is this place?" The questions came out of her mouth without her permission. The shadow stayed in silence for a moment, before turning around and being engulfed by a ray of light, which made her cover her eyes for protection. But before he disappeared, she managed to get a glimpse of something color blue. _Are those… his eyes?_

Hikari woke up the next morning, with a mix of sadness and peacefulness. Who was that person, and why did that place feel so warm and comforting despite being full of darkness? All of her past experiences told her otherwise. _Darkness is evil and cold… that's all there is to it, right? This was just a dream after all…_

It was Sunday. The Chosen Children and their Digimon went once again to Shibuya Station, and rode a Trailmon back to the Digital World. The older Chosen Children had already been told of what was going on; even of the death of one of the strangers. That had caused Taichi and Yamato to insist on going with them, but the younger team declined the offer. After all, they weren't the ones who would fight, and they knew that the Digimon would be reborn if something happened to them. Or at least that's what normally happened.

The kids remained in silence during the trip. It would be a long way to Forest Terminal, and the way things were going, they wondered what could happen now.

Hikari spent the time replaying her dream over and over again. Or was it a vision? A dream would normally be forgotten soon; this was different. She remembered every little detail of it, from the warm sensation to the eyes of that shadow. She had seen something in them. Was it sadness, pain, loneliness? But at the same time they seemed relaxed, peaceful and full of knowledge.

"Those blue eyes…"

Her words broke the silence of the place and caught everyone's attention. "Hikari-chan, is everything okay?" Takeru asked while looking at his childhood friend. The brunette sighed. "It's nothing, Takeru-kun. I was just thinking." She said, trying to sound relaxed; but everyone knew that her thoughts were deep just by her gaze locked on the floor.

* * *

Takuya was the first to wake up; or so he thought. He looked around only to find that Junpei wasn't with his still sleeping friends. He stood up, careful not to wake the others, and walked around to look for Junpei.

He finally found him a few meters away, sitting against a tree, looking up at the sky. Takuya sat beside him. "Are you okay?"

As leader, it was his duty to check on his teammates. He would keep his head together for their sake. Especially for Kouji; the poor guy had suffered enough in just one week.

Junpei nodded, and they stayed in silence for a couple of minutes. "I've been thinking…"

"What have you been thinking..?" Takuya asked._ Listen to them; everyone mourns in a different way._ He wasn't looking at him though; he was looking skyward just like Junpei was.

"Is it my imagination, or…"

"…or?"

Junpei looked at Takuya. "Did Kouichi's Digicode appear?"

"...his Digicode…" Takuya thought for some moments. He hadn't really pay attention to it. He was too shocked at the sudden attack and Kouichi's death that he hadn't noticed whether his Digicode had appeared or not.

"We know that he does ha… did have a physical body this time. And even last time, Lucemon scanned him. So there had to be a Digicode when he… when he died."

It was true. If he had died, he should have shown the Digicode. Takuya didn't remember that detail, so he decided to ask someone else. But not Kouji; it would probably be stupid to ask him to remember that detail, and they weren't even sure of what it meant. So they decided to ask Bokomon.

However, the white little Digimon was still asleep beside his yellow companion. They would have to ask someone else. Kouji was still out of the question, so that left them with either Izumi or Tomoki. Both of them had just woken up, so they decided to ask both.

"Ne, guys… we want to ask you something… about Kouichi."

Both looked at them a bit surprised. Izumi was better; after all, she was strong, and she wouldn't let the grief keep her down for long. Tomoki was taking it surprisingly well, but in the boy's eyes you could see that he was pretty sad about the whole situation.

"What do you want to ask?" Izumi questioned.

"You know... uhmm…" Takuya started. Junpei nudged him slightly. "Yeah, we were wondering if you saw if Kouichi's Digicode showed…"

Izumi and Tomoki looked at each other and then at Junpei and Takuya. "I think… I didn't…" Said Izumi. "Now that you say it… I think it didn't appear." Tomoki replied. "What do you think that means?" He asked the older boys.

"I don't know." Takuya replied. "… There might be a chance that Kouichi's still alive. But we won't tell Kouji, to avoid giving him false hopes."

Tomoki and Izumi nodded. It was for the best; if they told Kouji that, he would probably get in a blind hunt trying to find his brother, and would get really disappointed if it turned out to be false.

And then Kouji woke up. He seemed lost for a moment, as if he didn't remember where he was and what had happened. But then he looked down and sighed, and everyone knew by the look on his face that he remembered everything all too well.

One part of Takuya wanted to hit him with a rock on the head to give him amnesia. It was really sad to see him like that.

"I had a dream."

Everyone looked at him a bit surprised and confused. What kind of dream could it be? When no one commented on it, he decided to share it anyway. "I was in a dark place, and I found a shadow. I started chasing it, and then… then…"

He took a moment to calm himself down_. It's not time to cry. He wouldn't want us to get stuck here._ "Then the shadow turned around, and I could see Kouichi's eyes."

Everyone looked down for a moment. It was kind of weird that Kouji had decided to share it with them, since he was such a private person. Maybe he was still half-asleep?

"Alright, guys." Takuya said to break the silence. "We have to move. We've got an appointment at the Forest Terminal."

* * *

"I like this ride. This Digimon is quite fast." Daisuke said. "I don't know why that other kid wasn't sure if they would give us a ride; he even took us home and then back!"

"Maybe he knows another Trailmon." Miyako said without much interest. The trip was already making her tired because of all the bumps on the road. _It would have been faster and less tiring if I had just jumped on Aquilamon or Holsmon and flown there. _But since she didn't know where the famous Forest Terminal was, she didn't have another option.

Ken, Iori, Hikari and Takeru remained in silence. Ken and Iori were submerged in their own thoughts, feeling sympathy for the poor siblings, feeling somehow related to the tragedy. Hikari was still revising her dream —or a vision?—, in silence. She couldn't get those eyes out of her mind, or the sensation that the place had left on her. Takeru was looking at her at times, worried about her thoughts. _What_ _is she thinking? Why is she so focused? I wish she would tell me… us._

_Those blue eyes… what did they want to say?_ Hikari kept thinking, that last image embed in her mind. _I've seen blue eyes before, but none like those. They seemed sad, but full of hope._

The loud whistling of the Trailmon signaled that they had arrived to Forest Terminal. For Hikari, it seemed like a short trip, but for the others it was really long. She looked up at the sky, and noticed that it was afternoon already.

"Finally..!" Daisuke said, stretching himself. "But I don't see those other guys around. I hope they didn't leave because we weren't here." Just as he said it, another Trailmon was making its way towards the terminal.

"Looks like they hadn't even arrived." Takeru said, and all of them waited on the platform to greet the other team.


	7. Hopeful Meeting

Takuya and his friends had boarded the Trailmon at Flame Terminal later than they had planned. So, by the time that they arrived to Forest Terminal, it was already late afternoon even if they hadn't stopped at Soyokaze Village with the Floramon. And Takuya was indeed surprised that they had managed that. In the past they needed a lot of time to get there. But of course, they now knew more about the Digital World. And this Trailmon was quite fast, which didn't go unnoticed.

"Apparently you Trailmon went back to your old ways of running fast." Bokomon stated, having once witnessed the times when the Trailmon weren't hiding in their tunnels.

"After the Digital World was restored, there was no reason for us to be afraid anymore." The Digimon replied. "We're almost there, so let's hurry up!"

Minutes later, they could see six human figures and their respective partners waiting in the terminal.

Takuya was a bit wary of the other group. They were different than them, he could tell just by looking at his team. It was probable that the others having partners unlike them wasn't the only difference, but it was obviously the main one.

* * *

Daisuke was a bit wary of the other group. Those kids didn't have partners, and according to what Iori had said, they became Digimon themselves? That was crazy. But, since one of them had died… Was it true?

And there they came. The other group stepped out of the Trailmon, who decided to stay in the station for the night. They looked better than the day before, but they looked tired and sad.

"Sorry for arriving until now. How long were you waiting?" Takuya asked. Daisuke looked at him closely, and could notice that even if he looked like the least affected, he seemed to be carrying some kind of burden. Maybe because he was the leader?

"Only for a few minutes. We thought you might have left already." Ken spoke up, the smallest hint of a smile on his face. He wanted to be nice, but he knew that it was probably not the best moment to be all smiles and jokes. They had just lost one of their team. A friend, and apparently, a brother too. And he knew how that was.

"That's good. I guess we should get going." Takuya replied, looking at the path to Seraphimon's castle.

"Where are we going?" Daisuke asked. "And, well, what's going on here?" He took out his D-Terminal and shook it slightly. "We received this message but nothing else. What do you guys know?"

Takuya stayed in silence for a few seconds. "I guess we do owe you an explanation. But first, let's go to Seraphimon's castle. We'll probably get more answers there." He said, pointing upwards to a place above the trees. Since there wasn't much that they could do at the time, the Chosen Children decided to follow them up the long staircase.

The Legendary Warriors noted how the path leading to the castle wasn't covered by the branches this time. _Probably because Seraphimon isn't playing Sleeping Beauty now._ Takuya thought to himself. A smile tried to make its way to his face, but before that could happen he remembered what had happened so far. _This isn't time to joke._

After long minutes of climbing up the stairs, they finally arrived to the castle. The Chosen Children looked at it, amazed.

"It's like the castle of a princess..." Miyako said, admiring the shiny outside of the building.

Takuya stepped to the front and knocked on the giant door that opened almost immediately, as if someone was waiting for them. The group of children walked in, until they arrived to the chamber where Seraphimon had been resting for a long time. However, the angel Digimon wasn't the one to greet them.

"Welcome, Legendary Warriors."

"Sorcerymon?"

The faces of the Warriors lit up a little, some more than others. Kouji was happy to see him, too, but with such a recent loss, it was hard for him to put on a smile and greet their old friend as cheerfully as the others.

* * *

The Chosen Children remained in the background while the other group greeted the white version of Wizarmon —according to them. That brought Hikari out of her thoughts and finally put some attention to what was going on around her.

"Hikari-chan, is everything alright?" Takeru asked as he put his hand on her shoulder. Hikari didn't look at him, and just nodded slightly. "Yes… I'm okay." She answered in a whisper.

_But he's not… Was he asking for my help?_

Suddenly, she was startled by the voice of Sorcerymon, who told them to follow him into the inner rooms of the castle. Everyone started following him, some more eager than others.

"You must be tired from your trip here. You can rest here as long as you need."

"Sorcerymon, where is Seraphimon?" Junpei asked, wondering what the Great Angel was doing.

"Seraphimon-sama had some important matter to attend at Cherubimon-sama's castle; but I am unaware of the details. I just know that it was an emergency, and that Ophanimon-sama is there too. He told me to prepare a place for you to stay."

After a while, they were in front of a large door which opened by itself. It looked like a large room, but it was actually a short hallway that connected two large rooms with several beds and a large bathroom inside each one. In the hallway, some rather comfortable-looking chairs were accompanied by a table full of food.

"You may accommodate in the way you find most convenient. You have a long journey ahead, so I would suggest you to get as much rest as you can." He said while the kids were looking around the rooms.

"Thank you, Sorcerymon." Takuya told him, a small smile on his face. Sorcerymon nodded.

"It's a pleasure to host the Legendary Warriors and the Chosen Children in Seraphimon-sama's name." He said before making a pause. "The Warrior of Darkness isn't with you. Did something happen to him?" He asked in a whisper so Takuya would be the only one hearing. He just looked down.

"We had a battle with Ice Devimon. It happened too fast, we still can't believe it."

"I'm sorry. There should be some way..." He trailed off, and then Takuya remembered something. "Sorcerymon, can I talk to you for a moment in private?"

Takuya followed the Digimon outside and into a smaller, more modest room. They both sat at the small table that was there.

"Look, I'm not completely sure, but I think that Kouichi's Digicode didn't appear. Last time, when we were battling Lucemon, his Digicode appeared even though he had no body." He resumed. "But this time, it was like if he had just vanished."

Sorcerymon thought for a moment. He had never seen anything like that before. But, was there a possibility? Maybe, just maybe…

"It could be" He said after a moment. "that he is not actually dead. Maybe his data was transported to another place and stored. If that is the case, then he probably can be revived, but…"

Takuya had been smiling widely at the possibility, and then the smile faded when he heard that 'but'.

"..But…?"

Sorcerymon sighed. "But I don't know what would happen to his physical body. If his data was stored, then probably just his soul survived, but I am unaware of what would happen if he tried to return to the human world."

Takuya sighed. It wasn't something he would like to think about, but if there was a possibility of Kouichi being alive, then it was enough to raise his mood. "Thank you for the help, Sorcerymon."

The Digimon nodded. "It's my pleasure to help in any way I can. Now you should go with the others and rest. You have to meet Seraphimon-sama and the others at Cherubimon-sama's castle."

Takuya walked back to the room accompanied by Sorcerymon, and before entering, he looked at the Digimon. "Sorcerymon, don't tell anyone of what we talked, please…" The Digimon looked at the human in silence for a moment. "As you wish."

Takuya smiled at him and then the two parted ways.

* * *

As Takuya entered the room, he caught everyone's attention. They were eating and chatting, however, not between the groups, since the Warriors wanted to wait until Takuya was there.

"Takuya, where were you?" asked Izumi, who by the looks of her plate she was the one who had eaten the most out of the team —probably of the two teams, even.

"Just… taking a walk! You know, the last time we were here was to fight against LordKnightmon and Dynasmon."

Izumi pouted at him but apparently let go of the matter. However, the others were still looking at him. He sighed and took a seat among his team, and seemed to be thinking for a moment, after which he looked at the other team.

"I guess it's time to answer some questions." He said with a neutral look on his face.

Daisuke nodded, sitting at the other side of the table, but Ken replied. "Shouldn't we introduce properly first? Our first meeting wasn't very… eh…"

Since Ken didn't seem able to find a good adjective, Takuya spoke up to avoid the awkwardness that would follow. "You're right. My name is Kanbara Takuya." He said, and then nodded at his friends to do the same.

"Ciao, I am Orimoto Izumi."

"Name's Shibayama Junpei, nice to meet you all."

"I'm Himi Tomoki, it's a pleasure."

Everyone looked at Kouji, since he was distracted, looking at his plate still full of food. After a moment, he realized that everyone was staring at him and answered with a low voice.

"Minamoto Kouji."

No one called him out on his distant behavior, because everyone knew the reason. He continued to stare at his plate, not really paying any more attention to the others.

Daisuke was making a face that was stuck between being sympathetic and just slightly annoyed at bandana boy, but then looked up. "I'm Motomiya Daisuke, and this is V-mon." He said, looking at his partner who at some moment had climbed on his head.

"My name's Inoue Miyako, and my partner is Hawkmon." She said, the bird-like Digimon sitting on a chair by her side.

"I'm Ichijouji Ken, and this is my partner, Wormmon." He smiled slightly at his partner who was resting on his shoulder.

Iori bowed slightly before introducing himself. "My name is Hida Iori, and this is my partner, Armadimon." He said while patting his partner on the head, Armadimon laying on the small kid's lap.

"I'm Takaishi Takeru, my partner is Patamon." The little Digimon had been resting for a while on Takeru's head, and V-mon had just copied him a little bit ago.

Hikari, just like Kouji, was staring at her plate. Tailmon was curled up on her lap, trying to comfort her in any way she could, and she knew Hikari didn't talk much about her problems, so she would just stay close to her. However, when it was the girl's turn to introduce herself, she looked up at her and whispered her name to attract Hikari's attention. She looked up and noticed the rest of the people present looking at her, making her blush a little when she realized what was going on.

"My name is Yagami Hikari… and this is my partner, Tailmon." She said, petting her partner.

The Warriors seemed pretty confused about her attitude, but since no one had questioned lone wolf's attitude, they didn't called her out either. Takuya cleared his throat to attract Daisuke's attention since he had been staring at the brown haired girl.

"Now that we know each other, we can go on."

"Right… so… I guess I should start by asking why you don't have Digimon partners." Daisuke said. His first instinct was to ask about Kouichi, but decided to ask about it when he was alone with Takuya, since he seemed like the one who was keeping himself together the most.

"Well, we're the Legendary Warriors, and we can Spirit Evolve. I wouldn't say that we don't have partners, since the Spirits fight alongside us." He said, glancing at his Digivice where Agnimon was looking at him.

Not even five seconds had passed when Kouji stood up abruptly and walked towards the closest room. Everyone followed his movements in silence, and he stopped before entering the room. "I'm going to sleep now. You can continue without me." And then he closed the door.


	8. Departure to Cherubimon's Castle

Daisuke frowned slightly. "What's up with him?" He asked before he could stop himself. Miyako hit his arm annoyed, while the other four were giving him not-so-subtle glares. 'Ouch' was his only answer.

Takuya frowned as well, and so did his friends, human and Digimon. "Oh, I'm sorry; he just witnessed how his twin brother died for the _second_ time this week." Takuya replied, trying not to be so loud. He hoped Kouji couldn't hear.

This shocked the other team. "Second time? How is that even possible?" Takeru asked, being the first one to recover from the revelation.

"A week ago, we were called by Ophanimon to help save the Digital World." Takuya explained. "While we spent months here, in our world just a few minutes had passed. In one of our final battles, Kouichi sacrificed himself to save us, and as a result he also gave us the key to defeat Lucemon."

"When we came back to the human world, we found him at the hospital." Junpei continued, noticing that Takuya was tired. He didn't blame him. "He had been in the Digital World just as a spirit, since he had fallen downstairs and hit his head. Kouichi was apparently dead, and a miracle was needed to bring him back. That was last Sunday."

"Kouji has been worried all the week about him, since he couldn't see him. At least until Friday. That's when Kouji finally met his mother." This time Izumi continued. "On Saturday we were called again, and we figured that it wouldn't take us much longer than last time. Just a few minutes, and we would be back before Kouichi's mother returned home from work."

"And before his father arrived." Tomoki commented. "Didn't Kouji-san say that Kouichi-san would meet their father?"

Takuya nodded, and then Daisuke interrupted. "What do you mean? They didn't know their parents?"

"They divorced when they were too little." Takuya said. "Kouji was living with his father and Kouichi with his mother. They hadn't met before coming to the Digital World, though Kouichi knew about Kouji."

"That's why Kouji is behaving like that." Junpei said in his friend's defense. "He not only lost his twin. He already lost him twice in the same week, and couldn't get him to meet his father."

After a moment of silence, Ken spoke up. "Wait, you said that you left on Saturday?"

The Warriors nodded.

"It's already Sunday in our world. We went back for the night, and that's why we arrived late to Forest Terminal."

Takuya's team looked at each other, with a mix of shock and worry on their faces. "Then… Kimura-san…" Izumi muttered.

* * *

Kouji had left the common room in such a hurry because he couldn't hold back the tears anymore. It had been hard to do so all day long, but it was like if all his self control had gone away. He sat on the edge of one of the beds, just letting the tears flow. He had heard everything that was being discussed on the other side of the wall, but he didn't care. He couldn't care less about that other team.

But when he heard what that other boy, Ken, had said, he suddenly stopped crying. The time in the human world was flowing normally. It meant that they had been disappeared for a complete day now. His mother was aware of their absence. His father too. His father…

More tears ran down his face, this time out of despair. Not only was Kouichi dead now; his parents were aware of their sudden disappearance and he wouldn't be able to stay in the Digital World just to escape from that. He couldn't be such a coward. But what was he going to do? How would he tell them that his brother had died? He wished that he would have stayed back with him. He shouldn't have gone to the Digital World. He would be safe with his twin.

In the midst of his sorrow, he didn't realize when Takuya walked in the room and sat by his side until he put a hand on his shoulder and startled him.

"Sorry, Kouji." He apologized. "Did you hear what they told us?"

Kouji nodded. He didn't have the strength to talk.

"Should we go back tomorrow and head to Cherubimon's castle later? Or..."

"Aren't you supposed to be the one taking the decisions?" Kouji muttered, trying to make a joke of it but he clearly wasn't feeling good enough for that.

"Maybe, but…" He sighed. "I thought that you probably wanted to see them."

Kouji let out a shaky breath. "I do, but at the same time, I'm afraid." He confessed, trying to not let more tears run down his face. "First of all we'll have to tell them about all of this mess. And then what do you think they'll think of me? I'm a disappointment. I should have stayed back with Kouichi. I should have—"

Takuya shook him slightly to keep him from talking. "Now, don't talk like that Kouji. All of those 'I should have' aren't going to get you anywhere. They won't bring Kouichi back."

"I know, but…" Kouji started, but the tears didn't let him continue. Takuya felt his heart break. It was a sad thing to see.

"No 'buts', Kouji."

Kouji looked at Takuya with wide eyes. Kouichi had said the exact same thing to him just before they left his house. It brought more tears to his eyes, but Takuya had had enough of it. He would normally not do it, and afterwards it would be awkward as hell, but Kouji needed support and so he pulled him into a tight hug. After a short moment, Kouji hugged back. They stayed like that for a moment, and then Kouji pulled away, a bit embarrassed but grateful at his friend.

"Thank you." He muttered, still embarrassed.

"I'm not the only one who's here for you, Kouji. Izumi, Junpei, Tomoki, Bokomon and Neemon are here too."

"I know. Next time, leave the hugging to Izumi. It's not as awkward with her, you fool." He said, a small smile appearing on his face.

"Sorry, but as much as this hurts us, you in particular, I can't let you or the others break apart. Not when we have a mission to accomplish. You still have your mother and father. You can't let yourself break apart, for their sake. You know Kouichi wouldn't want you to lose yourself."

Kouji sighed deeply and nodded. Takuya was right.

"I know. It was so sudden, it happened so fast."

Takuya placed a hand on his friend's shoulder and smiled a little. "You should take a shower and rest. Apparently the girls will be in the other room and the guys in this one since Izumi insists on taking a bath herself, though at first we wanted to keep the teams separated. The others will come soon." Takuya stood up, and started making his way out.

"Takuya."

He looked back. "Yes?"

"You know… You're not only my best friend. You're like a brother too. Thank you."

"No problem, buddy." Takuya said smiling before leaving the room.

Kouji remained on his place for a couple of minutes more before standing up and going to the bathroom to take a shower. It made him relax a little, and he felt better once that all the dirt from fighting and having slept on the ground was off his body. Apparently Seraphimon had really been waiting for them, as Sorcerymon had prepared even some spare clothes for them to sleep in. It was nothing fancy, but it served its purpose. He went back to the bed he had been sitting on, and fell asleep.

* * *

Kouji was already asleep when the rest of the boys entered the room. They had been talking for a while and apparently most of the animosity between the teams had dissipated. However, in the talk the Legendary Warriors had managed to avoid the topic of their elements, as the Chosen Children hadn't mentioned which Digimental or Crest they had.

While the male Warriors took a shower to get rid of the dirt from the previous night, the male Chosen Children —who had slept on their own beds and had spent the day on a Trailmon— prepared themselves to go to bed. Takuya had already told them that they would use the three beds beside Kouji's, who had chosen the one next to the left wall, so they decided to use the other four to the right, leaving a single one in the middle.

Ken and Iori looked at the sleeping Kouji with sympathy for a moment, while Takeru was more worried about Hikari, who had spent the day lost in thought. Daisuke was trying to understand the situation of the other team. Not that he was stupid, but… it was a lot. How could they cope with it? He had felt horrible when Oikawa had died, and he had been a bad guy most of the time! What if he lost someone from his own team? What if he lost Jun? They might not get along, but he still loved his sister.

Minutes later, Takuya, Tomoki and Junpei got out of the bathroom wearing the spare clothes. Takuya laid down on the bed next to Kouji's, Tomoki chose the next and Junpei the next one, beside the spare bed who kept him away from the one Daisuke had chosen. He had gotten a bad impression of the guy, but he knew that the kid probably wasn't as bad. He was just confused, he supposed.

Bokomon climbed on Tomoki's bed and Neemon did the same, taking advantage of the space that the small kid didn't use even though there was still a spare bed. They just didn't feel well when they thought that Kouichi would be the one using that bed. Soon, most of them were asleep except for Takuya, who was looking at Kouji.

There was nothing in particular in his mind. He was just laying there, finally in a moment of peace. But he knew that it wouldn't last long. And he knew that it wasn't absolute peace. Not for them, at least. He closed his eyes, trying to stop thinking about the burden he had willingly taken upon himself to avoid letting his team fall apart. After a while, he finally fell asleep.

On the girls' side, Hikari and Miyako were already getting in bed, while Izumi decided to take her time with her bath. Miyako was looking at Hikari a bit worried; she had noticed her strange attitude too. Hikari was in silence, looking at the bed sheets. Tailmon was curled up next to the pillow, already asleep.

"Hikari-chan?"

Hikari didn't answer, and Miyako was about to call her again when the girl looked at her. "What is it?"

"Is something wrong? You have been acting a bit weird all day long. Takeru is worried about you."

The brunette looked at her Jogress evolution partner, and decided that she would tell her. It was related to darkness after all, right? Wasn't that the reason they had finally understood each other and made the Jogress between her partners possible?

"It's… a dream I had. I was in a dark place, but it wasn't like other kinds of darkness. It was… soothing, peaceful even. But it was sad too. Then I saw the shadow of a person, and started chasing it until it stopped. Then a bright light made the shadow disappear, but before it did, I could see his blue eyes. They were sad but hopeful at the same time." She told her, remembering the dream.

"Hopeful blue eyes? Are you sure they weren't Takeru's?" Miyako asked with a smile, teasingly.

Hikari shook her head. "No. I had never seen these eyes before." She answered, ignoring the teasing undertones.

In the bathroom, Izumi had finished her shower and was about to come out when she heard Hikari's description of her dream. It was the same as Kouji. And Kouji knew those had been Kouichi's eyes. She felt like she should say something, but what? She decided to leave it alone for the moment and talk with her friends about it in the morning. Finally she came out and chose the bed next to Hikari. The female Warrior hadn't talked as much with the other two, but she didn't know if it had been because the other team had been rather closed to them. Probably it was. And apparently they still didn't trust them completely. Though it wasn't as if the Warriors trusted them much either.

The three girls remained in silence and soon the two friends fell asleep with her partners. Izumi remained awake, thinking about the recent events and what she had just heard. As far as they remembered, Kouichi hadn't shown his Digicode, and he hadn't been scanned, and now not only Kouji had a dream, but this girl too? Was there any chance of Kouichi being still alive?

She was tired, so she decided to sleep and she would tell Takuya what had happened in the morning.

* * *

Takuya was the first to wake up, or so he thought. He was now looking at Tomoki, with Bokomon and Neemon at his feet. Everyone else was still asleep, so he wondered if Kouji was sleep too. However he didn't have to turn around to find out, since Kouji walked out of the bathroom wearing his own clothes, which apparently had been washed by the castle's staff —which would be awesome at playing hide and seek, since no one had ever seen a Digimon other than Sorcerymon. Takuya figured that they had entered to the bathroom trough the mysterious door that no one cared to open.

Kouji smiled a little at his friend. "Morning."

"Morning." He said too as he sat up on the bed. "I'd say that you look better, but you look like hell." Takuya joked, hoping that his friend would take it as a joke too.

Kouji sighed. He was too tired to be mad at Takuya for his attempt at keeping a light mood, so he smiled a little again. "I know. Can't help it when I have been crying for a day and a half." He said, sitting on his friend's bed. However the smile soon disappeared and Takuya put a hand on his shoulder. "Kouichi wouldn't like that. He would like you to move forward, as hard as it is."

"I still need time."

"I know."

Takuya smiled slightly at his friend before jumping out of bed and going to the bathroom to change his clothes. Before he came out, Tomoki started waking up and so did Iori, who apparently was the early-riser of his team despite being the youngest. His partner, however, was the opposite. Armadimon was still snoring even though the others around him were starting to wake up.

When Takuya finally came out, Tomoki and Iori had already gone in, and V-mon started jumping on the bed to wake his partner. The commotion made Ken and Wormmon wake up, and not a minute later Takeru was waking up too. Junpei was the last one to wake up, when the others had already changed his clothes, though Armadimon, Patamon and Neemon were still sleeping. The last one didn't last asleep for much longer, since Bokomon snapped his pants to wake him up.

The group of boys finally left their room, only to find the girls already eating breakfast. The last one to wake up was Miyako, and she was up before Tomoki. The boys sat down to eat their own breakfast, and everyone stayed in silence for a while, at least until Izumi and Takuya finished eating and she dragged him out of the common room and to the hallway.

"I need to tell you something."

"I guessed as much, why else would you drag me out like that?" Takuya said, frowning a little.

"Well, I made an important discovering last night, so listen." She said, pouting. "Remember the dream Kouji had?"

"How could I forget?" He replied, having calmed down a bit.

"Well, it turns out that that girl, Hikari, had the same dream. He told the other girl last night while I was in the bathroom. Apparently she had been thinking about it all day long."

"Really? Did you say something?"

"No." She sighed. "I wanted to tell you first. I mean, we are almost sure that Kouichi's Digicode didn't appear, and now not only Kouji had that dream, but that girl who has never met him had the same dream."

"Actually, yesterday I talked to Sorcerymon." Takuya confessed.

"During your 'walk', right?"

"Yes, I asked him about Kouichi's Digicode not appearing."

Izumi stayed in silence for a moment before asking. "What did he say?" She sounded more cautious than before. Her voice was a bit softer and Takuya could notice a hint of sadness and hope in it.

"He said that if his Digicode didn't appear that maybe his data had been transported and stored somewhere else. But that if that was the case, then he wasn't sure about what would happen with his actual body. He might end up like the first time we came here." Takuya finished explaining, sounding a bit sorrowful by the end.

Izumi sighed. That was not a good option, but it was obviously better than their current situation. "Why is it always him? The poor Kouichi just doesn't seem to catch a break."

"Neither does Kouji. He might be alive, but… maybe that's worse." He said, looking at the doors behind which the others were eating. "He's been having a rough time."

"I can imagine."

"Oh by the way… yesterday Kouji was feeling pretty bad, and… well, he just told me to leave the hugs to you, so you should better do that the next time he's feeling down." He said trying to sound non-chalant to try to hide his embarrassment.

Izumi's smile became a smirk and just as she was about to ask him if he had actually hugged Kouji, he made his escape saying that he would see if the others had finished yet.

* * *

"Are you leaving now?"

Takuya looked at Sorcerymon while the others prepared for the trip to Cherubimon's castle.

"I'm afraid that we are. We need to get to Cherubimon's castle as soon as possible." He smiled. "Thank you for everything, Sorcerymon. It was nice to spend the night here."

"It's a pleasure to have you here, Legendary Warriors." He said before adding, in a low voice so that Takuya was the only one hearing. "And I hope you find the Warrior of Darkness."

Takuya smiled at the Digimon and nodded. After a while, everyone was ready to leave, and Sorcerymon escorted them down the path to Forest Terminal. The Trailmon that had taken the Warriors to the terminal was still there, willing to take them all the way to Cherubimon's castle. Turns out that he and the Trailmon that the Chosen Children had been riding so far had been personally appointed by Seraphimon to take them from place to place. Takuya could only roll his eyes. Maybe not all the Trailmon had gone back to be as efficient.

With one last good bye, the kids departed from Forest Terminal.

The Warriors had occupied one of the cars while the Chosen Children stayed in another. The first minutes of the trip had been rather silent on both teams, until someone decided to speak.

"I had another dream."

Takuya got a bit startled. He looked a bit confused at Kouji, wanting him to explain further. The other team had also heard and tried to be discreet about listening; especially Hikari. She had had another dream, too.

"I was in a darker place than before, it was pitch-black. However I knew that there was someone else with me. I knew it was Kouichi. He was really close, but there was something between us that didn't let me reach him. Then I looked at him, and he was showing his Digicode. It was so strange, because I don't think I saw his Digicode…"

Takuya looked at Izumi. They both knew that it was a confirmation of what they weren't sure about. There had been no Digicode.

Suddenly, Hikari stood up from her place, and walked until she was in front of Kouji. It took a moment for Kouji to react and look at her, and when he did, she spoke softly.

"I had a dream too… What does the Digicode look like?"

Kouji stared at her for a moment before standing up and showing her a ring of his own Digicode in his hand.

"This is the Digicode."

Hikari stared at the ring for a moment. "Then, it was the same dream." The girl then looked at Kouji in the eyes. "Then the one I saw in the dream was your brother?"

Kouji was standing still, a bit surprised by the fact, but after a moment, he nodded.

"Then I have a question for you." She seemed to become a bit wary. "Wh… What's his relationship with Darkness…?"

Kouji and the girl where looking at each other in the eyes. That made her friends —Takeru in particular— a bit uncomfortable.

"And also, where is Cherubimon's castle?" She asked again.

'_This girl is full of questions…'_ Takuya thought.


	9. Arrival to the Continent of Darkness

There was an almost absolute silence, since no one knew how to react at Hikari's question. The Warriors could see how wary and scared she seemed to be about it, and her friends were curious about the subject, wondering what they would say. It was a serious matter, after all. Why would someone have a relationship with darkness, unless they were evil?

"Kouichi…" Kouji started, but he honestly didn't know how to continue. The girl's look hardened a little, already suspecting the worst. Takuya noticed and stood up beside his friend.

"And what if he has a relationship with Darkness? That doesn't change anything." He said defensively. Apparently these people —or at least this girl— had a certain view on his deceased friend's element, and he didn't like it.

"So he does. He works for the forces of _Darkness_." Takeru stood up and walked until he was by Hikari's side. He seemed to get angry with the revelation.

"Well, yes, he's… he was the Warrior of Darkness, so what?" Takuya replied. He clearly wouldn't stand any kind of bad mouthing of his friends and team, and even less of Kouichi. The goggle head's hands had curled into fists and his shoulders tensed slightly.

"'So what?' How can you work with someone like that? Don't you realize it?" Takeru said, getting angrier. He had raised a fist, if only to intimidate the other a little. "Darkness is an evil force, nothing good comes from it!"

"Don't talk about Kouichi like that."

Takeru and Takuya turned to look at Kouji, who now showed a deep frown. "Don't ever talk about my brother like that." Everyone could feel the threat in his voice, but Takuya didn't feel like stopping him should a fight ensue —he was more inclined to the idea of helping him— and none of the Chosen Children were exactly against him in _that_ aspect; no one would like someone to talk like that about their sibling.

Takeru recognized the threat too, and knowing that the guy could actually evolve into a Digimon —as strange it was— decided to leave the subject aside for the time being.

"Then, what about you? If he's Darkness, what are you all?"

Takuya decided to answer that himself. Kouji wasn't the best at expressing his thoughts, and considering the way things had turned out something he said might be misunderstood by the blond.

"I'm the Warrior of Flame," He said, stepping between Kouji and Takeru. "Izumi is the Warrior of Wind; Junpei, the Warrior of Thunder; Tomoki, the Warrior of Ice, and Kouji is…"

"The Warrior of Light, isn't he?"

Everyone looked at Hikari, who had answered that. Kouji looked at the girl, still frowning, and nodded slightly. "How did you know?" He asked.

She looked down slightly. "The dreams." Since no one said anything, she decided to continue. "If your brother is… the Warrior of Darkness, and we've had the same dreams… I figured that it was possible that you were the Warrior of Light."

"The dreams? But how would that tell you that he's the Warrior of Light?" Izumi asked, already tired of not being part of the discussion.

"I have the Crest of Light."

Takeru saw the slightly confused faces of the other team and decided to explain a bit further. "Just like Hikari has the Crest of Light, I have the Crest of Hope, and Ken has the Crest of Kindness. There are other six Crest holders, including my brother and Hikari-chan's brother."

"And what about the rest of you?" Junpei asked to the other three that hadn't been mentioned.

"I inherited the Digimental of Courage and Friendship, the Crests that belong to Taichi-senpai and Yamato-san, Hikari-chan and Takeru's brothers." Daisuke said, stepping closer to the Warriors.

"I have the Digimental of Purity and Love." Added Miyako, who also walked closer to the group along with Iori and Ken.

"And I have the Digimental of Knowledge and Sincerity." Iori said.

"Now that that's clear;" Takuya continued. "I don't see why you guys are so scared of Darkness, or there being a Warrior of Darkness."

"Why wouldn't we? It's _Darkness_." Daisuke added, deciding to act as a spokesman for his team just like Takuya seemed to be doing for his own. "So far, the forces of _Darkness_ have been trying to do all kind of evil things."

"Well, we had to fight against _both_ Light and _Darkness_." Takuya replied, not satisfied with their reasons. "This angel type Digimon named Lucemon could control both, and so we needed both Light and Darkness to defeat him."

Takuya looked discreetly at Takeru and Hikari's Digimon partners. Patamon and Tailmon. Now there was a possible hint as to why they were so adamant about Darkness being evil. He knew that Patamon could eventually evolve into Seraphimon, and Tailmon was a Holy Beast Digimon —and according to Bokomon, Plotmon had evolved into Tailmon before eventually becoming Ophanimon once again. Was this group so innocent that they had a black and white philosophy?

The Chosen Children looked at each other with a bit of confusion in their eyes. "An angel type?"

"What's so strange about Lucemon being an angel type?" Takuya asked. "Yeah, an angel type that was evil and wanted to destroy the Digital and human worlds." He continued, almost enjoying the reaction of the others. "And the Warrior of Darkness managed to save us so we could stop him. He gave his Spirits to Kouji and then we could evolve into Susanoomon, and finally defeated Lucemon. Both worlds were saved thanks to Kouichi, the Warrior of Darkness."

Junpei was enjoying their reactions too. _'It's almost as if they were deaf;'_ he thought._ 'we had already told them about this yesterday. Or maybe they just have a horrible memory.'_ Tomoki almost snickered at the faces of the Chosen Children and Izumi was brave enough to actually smile.

After their bewildered faces changed into confused ones, Daisuke asked. "Well, leaving that apart, you haven't answered Hikari-chan's other question."

"Oh yeah," Takuya said, a bit more relaxed now that he had a bit of fun, even if it had been at the expense of the other group. "Cherubimon's castle. Well, it's in the Continent of Darkness, so you all better get over your black and white views on it." He said as a warning, though a rather light-hearted one.

* * *

Half a day passed before they approached the Continent of Darkness. Hikari could feel the presence of darkness being stronger with each kilometer they got closer to it. And she didn't have any chance to escape from it. For some reason they had been called to this new Digital World, and they had to stay until they accomplished their mission.

This time, the Trailmon didn't even flinch when entering the Dark Continent, though he did shiver. While there was no immediate threat to their world, he knew that there were evil forces planning to take over. He had only been convinced to go through the trouble because Seraphimon had told him that the Legendary Warriors and the Chosen Children would avoid it.

"Are we there yet?"

Takuya rolled his eyes at Daisuke's rather childish comment while Junpei got up and looked through the window.

"Do you see that?" He asked, pointing to a certain place in the horizon. "That's the Rose Morning Star. Cherubimon's castle is under it."

"Then we still have a ways to go." Daisuke pouted before sighing. "But I guess it can't be helped."

He sat down and started playing with V-mon. If he was going to spend more time in that Trailmon, he would at least try to make the most out of it. After all, they could be attacked at any moment.

And then the Trailmon got knocked out of the railroad.

"Speaking of the devil…" He muttered. He hadn't intended to jinx it.

And a devil indeed, since it was Ice Devimon who attacked the Trailmon.

"This time you won't escape, Warrior of Light." His voice was heard throughout the surrounding forest.

Kouji knew it was the same Ice Devimon who had fought them when they arrived. He knew it was the same Ice Devimon who had killed his brother. And this time, he wasn't going to let him escape like the last time. Before anyone could stop him, Kouji ran out of the Trailmon and took out his Digivice.

"Spirit Evolution!"

The Chosen Children looked at the other boy with amazement.

"Garmmon!"

Garmmon leaped over Trailmon and didn't waste a second.

"Solar Laser!" A laser shoot out of Garmmon's mouth and hit Ice Devimon on the right shoulder. The fallen angel stepped back while the wolf clung to his arm, just to hit him repeatedly with Solar Laser on the face.

"Kouji!" Takuya yelled, already on his way to evolve. _'This idiot…'_

"Spirit Evolution! Vritramon!"

Vritramon flew until he was in front of Ice Devimon, and used Corona Blaster, firing lasers from the weapons on his arms. Apparently they had an effect on him, since the Digimon stepped back again, though he managed to throw Garmmon off himself. The Light Warrior landed pretty badly, though he stood up again and started charging towards Ice Devimon.

"Speed Star!"

Garmmon's blades inflicted some damage on Ice Devimon's legs, but when he was about to do it again, he heard Ice Devimon while he called the name of an attack.

"Frost Claw!"

Garmmon suddenly found himself going against Ice Devimon's hand, which easily slashed his side, causing great damage. Garmmon was thrown again, but this time he devolved. Junpei hurried to his side to check if he was okay.

"Kouji!" Takuya yelled again, and this time used Flame Storm on Ice Devimon, who hit him square on the face alongside Shutumon's Wind of Pain and Blizzarmon's Avalanche Step, who had just evolved and joined the battle.

"Kouji, are you okay?" Junpei asked while helping his friend to his feet. Kouji groaned slightly before answering. "Yeah, don't worry."

"Well then." He said before shaking Kouji a little. "Are you an idiot?! Don't be so reckless, Kouji!"

Kouji looked away, not wanting to face his friend. "But he killed Kouichi…"

"That's not a reason, Kouji! I know it hurts, we are all hurting, but you have to think first." Junpei said, looking at his friends who were about to defeat Ice Devimon. "Takuya is trying hard to keep us together even with what happened, and then you go and put yourself in danger because you weren't thinking. Haven't you thought that maybe he wants to break down crying as much as you do? Kouichi was an important part of our team Kouji, he was our friend, and even if Takuya seems to be pretty chill about it, it's obvious that he has a burden."

Kouji remained in silence, and Junpei saw that he wouldn't get an answer from him, not anytime soon at least. _Well I hope he listened to me_.

It was then when Junpei noticed that Takuya and the others had already defeated and scanned Ice Devimon, while the Chosen Children had been busy putting the Trailmon back on the railroad.

"Judging by the look of the Trailmon, I think he will only get us to the Terminal and then we'll have to camp." Takuya said as soon as he got close to them. Junpei, Izumi and Tomoki left to check on the Trailmon and board, but Takuya stayed behind and looked at Kouji.

"Are you hurt?" He asked. Kouji only shook his head.

"Idiot, of course you are. But if you weren't, I wouldn't hesitate to punch you on the face for being so reckless, and if I'm the one telling you, then you should be concerned."

"If you already knew that I was hurt, then why did you ask?"

"Because you're an idiot, idiot."

"Would you stop calling me an idiot already?"

"Nope." Was Takuya's rather cheerful reply, and then he walked away to board the Trailmon. Just a moment later Kouji was doing the same.

* * *

As Takuya said, the Trailmon was willing to take them all the way to the Terminal, but only if they let him rest until the next morning when they would start the second half of their trip to Cherubimon's castle.

The girls left to look for some food along with Tomoki and Iori, while Takuya, Daisuke, Takeru and Ken went to look for wood to make a campfire. Junpei stayed behind at Takuya's request, to 'keep Kouji from doing something stupid again'. Kouji had insisted on looking for wood, but since he was hurt from the battle with Ice Devimon, he was told to stay put.

"This is nonsense."

"What you did was nonsense." Junpei replied.

"Could you stop doing that? I got it, it was stupid, but this is getting old."

Junpei stayed in silence for a moment before finally answering.

"I guess, it's a way of telling you that we don't want to lose you too."

Kouji looked at Junpei, a bit shocked by what he had heard. "What do you mean? You're not… I won't…" Not really knowing what to say, he decided to shut up.

"We will if you continue being reckless and charging into battle without thinking." There was no point in lying, Junpei decided. He would tell Kouji exactly what he thought.

Kouji frowned at what he heard. Not because he was being scolded by Junpei, but because he —and probably the others — thought that he could die too.

He wanted to tell him that he didn't mean to worry them, that he had just being blind and careless because he was still grieving. But the words didn't come out of his mouth, so he gave up. Kouji stood up and started walking away.

"Where are you going, Kouji?"

The boy stopped when he heard Izumi's voice. He was about to brush her off, but didn't say anything when he realized that it would come out quite rude, and hung his head. "I'll just take a walk. I'll be back in a few minutes."

He didn't complain when she started following him. And she was surprised that he didn't. He finally sat down on the ground, resting against a tree. She sat down by his side, and looked at him.

"Does it hurt?"

"Does what hurt? I'm hurting both physically and emotionally."

"I was talking about your body, idiot." She muttered.

"Did you all agree on calling me idiot today?" He replied with a slight smirk that made Izumi giggle.

"Sorry, but you really acted like an idiot back there." The blonde and the black-haired kids looked up to see Takuya standing in front of them before sitting down.

"Takuya… I…" Kouji started, before the brunet interrupted him.

"Don't worry Kouji, I forgive you for being a royal idiot back there." He said with a big grin on his face. Kouji frowned for a second before looking down. "Yeah, thank you. But that's not the only thing I wanted to say."

"Then, what is it?"

"…I wanted to tell you that… t-thank you for keeping the team together… and I'm sorry I have being such an idiot since… you know."

Takuya just smiled softly at his friend. "Kouji, you know that…"

"I haven't finished."

"Eh?"

"…Kouichi was your friend too, but you've been so busy keeping us, me, from falling apart that you haven't cried once."

The silence was heavy while both Kouji and Izumi looked at Takuya, who had hung his head. After a few moments, Takuya's sobs filled the air. Izumi leaned forward and hugged him tightly, though he got startled when he felt her arms wrapping around his shoulders.

* * *

Everyone was already eating, and also everyone was wondering where Takuya, Izumi and Kouji were. It was getting late and there was still no sign of them.

"I'm going to look for them." Junpei said while standing up. "Tomoki, stay here."

Tomoki was about to say something but decided not to. There was no reason to be worried; it wasn't like they could have gotten lost, and everyone would have heard if there had been a battle. But still, it was strange that they hadn't come back yet.

The Chosen Children were in silence, though their Digimon partners were either already sleeping or playing around. Daisuke looked bored, and was resting his elbows on his knees. Iori was playing with Armadimon and V-mon, and Takeru and Hikari were looking at the fire, not liking the place. Hikari was more confused about it; she could feel the presence of darkness, it was all around her, after all. But it was a different sensation than whatever she had experienced before, except for the dreams she had had. Was the other group right about the Darkness? However, she still couldn't see it as a source of good things.

Ken was feeling the same, at least in part. While he didn't like the place too much, he didn't have as many doubts as Hikari. He had been a villain himself, and he had been redeemed. His friends had forgiven him. Wormmon had forgiven him. But he still had been able to open the gate to the World of _Darkness_. And how could they forget Blackwargreymon? At the end he saved Iori's grandfather, even though he had been created from Dark Towers. It wasn't that crazy that there could be a Warrior of Darkness after all.

Miyako looked at Ken while he was deep in thought. She could see his discomfort caused by the place, but his face also showed some kind of understanding. _Is he thinking about what the others told us?_

Ken noticed her looking at him. "Is something wrong, Miyako-san?"

She blushed a little, but it was still noticed by Ken. "Ah, no, there's nothing wrong Ken-kun..." She said before laughing softly. "I was just wondering what we'll found at that castle."

"We'll find Seraphimon, Ophanimon and Cherubimon." Tomoki replied. Once he got the attention of not only Ken and Miyako, but of the others too, he smiled and continued. "They are the Three Great Angels that keep peace in the Digital World. If they called us, there must be a serious situation. But I'm not sure what are the three doing in Cherubimon's castle."

Just a few seconds later, Junpei was back with the other three. It turned out that Takuya had fallen asleep and Izumi wouldn't let Kouji carry him back. But none of the three told the others that Takuya had actually cried himself to sleep.


	10. Revival of Darkness

The next morning, Takuya woke up with a slight headache. He had to think for a moment before recalling what had happened the night before, and suddenly wondered how he had arrived to the place where everyone was gathered.

As he stood up, he realized that Kouji wasn't there. He looked around, hoping to find him, but there was no sign of him. Where could he have gone?

_Maybe he had another dream and he's thinking about it._ Takuya thought while walking around. He had dreamed about Kouichi the first two nights they had spent there, so it wouldn't be surprising if he had a third one._ And probably that Hikari girl too._

Unlike Kouji, Hikari was still sleeping. Actually, everyone was still sleeping.

Takuya wandered a bit away from the others, and ended up in the place where he had cried. Kouji was there, leaning against some tree with his eyes closed like he had done the night before. When he got closer, he could notice that Kouji had been crying again. But he could also notice his smile.

"Kouji?"

"Takuya…" He said, opening his eyes and drying his tears. "Have the others woken up yet?"

"No." He said while shaking his head. "Are you okay?"

Kouji stood up and just shrugged slightly. "I'm better than before. I just had another dream, that's all."

"Well, if you say so…" Takuya wasn't still so sure, but If Kouji was smiling then it wouldn't be as bad as he thought.

They walked back with the others and found out that some others had already woken up. Soon, the others started waking up too and after having breakfast —that consisted on some fruits found on the forest, like their dinner the night before— they boarded on the Trailmon, who was now feeling better after a full night of rest.

"Did you have another dream?" Kouji's question to Hikari interrupted the silence that had reigned in the Trailmon.

Hikari nodded, though Kouji could notice that the Takeru guy had tensed slightly at his presence. _Is he afraid of me doing something to her?_ Kouji thought.

Shoving that to the back of his mind, he continued questioning her.

"What was your dream?"

"Uhmm… well… I was in the same dark place, and there was a boy…" She started and then she looked at Kouji for a moment. "Your brother, I think. But now he was not a shadow, I could see his face and everything, and he was smiling. His eyes weren't sad anymore."

"And there were two Digimon at his sides, right?" Kouji added, knowing that it was the same dream. She nodded.

"Two Digimon… at his right there was a humanoid Digimon, and at his left a beast Digimon, both looked like lions."

"His Spirits." Kouji commented.

"I guess… well, there's nothing else but that." She finished.

Kouji smiled slightly. "It was nice to see my brother's face again."

"You just need to look in a mirror, smart boy." Takuya joked, and Kouji just answered by rolling his eyes. Junpei and Izumi chuckled for a moment while Tomoki smiled.

* * *

The journey felt long and boring. Daisuke was even tempted to try jinxing the group again so that a Digimon would attack them and they would have some action, but immediately remembered that Kouji had gotten hurt. He ended up taking a nap with V-mon.

The girls had better luck getting along, since after a while Izumi decided to sit with Miyako and Hikari and the three talked about various things, mostly unrelated to their situation. The blonde wanted the other team to trust them —and in consequence, Kouichi, or at least she hoped so— and decided to be friendly instead of blunt like Takuya had been so far.

Finally, after hours of travelling, they arrived to the Rose Morning Star, and under it was Cherubimon's castle. The Chosen Children looked at it curiously, since it was so different from Seraphimon's castle. However, to reach the entrance of the castle, they had to make the Digimon evolve, and soon XV-mon, Aquilamon, Pegasmon, Stingmon, Fairymon, Blitzmon, and Vritramon were making their way towards the castle's gate.

This time there were no difficulties to get inside the castle, and Goatmon took them to see Cherubimon, Seraphimon and Ophanimon, who were waiting for them in a room.

"Welcome, Legendary Warriors, Chosen Children." Cherubimon greeted. "We have been waiting for you."

"It's great to see you again." Takuya replied with a smile. "But what's going on here? Why were we called again?"

The Three Great Angels looked at each other and then nodded. "Follow me, please." Seraphimon commanded, and the humans and Digimon partners followed Seraphimon and Ophanimon to another room, while Cherubimon walked behind them.

"We got notice of what happened when the Legendary Warriors arrived to the Digital World." Ophanimon explained. The kids' expressions became a little sad. "And with the terrible being that wants to enter to the Digital World using this Continent of Darkness as gate, we couldn't let one of you perish this soon. You'll need as much help as you can get."

Everyone was confused. "Wait, what do you mean with that?" Asked Junpei, who was one of the most confused. Kouji was smiling, though he didn't let anyone see that.

No one replied, and instead Seraphimon opened a pair of doors. Behind them, there was a bed where someone was sleeping. No one said anything for a moment, and by the time they reacted, Kouji was already standing by the bed.

"Wait… is that…?"

"Nii-san…" Kouji muttered, looking at his twin as if it was another dream. "It's really him…"

"It's him." Cherubimon confirmed while moving closer to the twins. "But right now he needs to rest. I suggest we stay in the next room, that way we'll know when he wakes up."

Everyone agreed and they were led to a room connected to that one, but Kouji stayed behind one minute to look at his twin and get in his head the idea that he was actually alive.

* * *

"So… how is Kouichi alive?" Takuya asked, but he already had his own theories.

"As soon as his data started to show, it was transported to the Continent of Darkness." Ophanimon explained. "Being the Warrior of Darkness, his data would remain locked here as a warranty that the Spirits of Darkness wouldn't get lost. However, Cherubimon redirected it to his castle before it got locked, so that we had the chance to bring him back to life."

"The Spirits' data was separated from his own, and using it, we created an artificial body for him. We merged the data of Löwemon's child form and his data, and Löwemon's and Kaiser Leomon's Spirits remain inside his Digivice. His new body is stronger, and has means of defending himself from harm while in this form."

"That's great, but we have a question." Takuya said when he got the chance. "Is he able to go back home?"

Kouichi's friends wore an expression that could be interpreted as worry. Looking at this, the Angels smiled —even if Seraphimon's expression couldn't be seen .

"He can go to the human world as much as the Chosen Children's partners can." Seraphimon replied, and he sounded like he was smiling.

The Digimon were actually smiling, so that relieved the Legendary Warriors. Goatmon entered the room, announcing that Kouichi had woken up. Koji didn't waste a second to get to his brother's side, and his friends followed him. The Chosen Children walked behind them; they were still wary of the Warrior of Darkness, and they would leave the others space to talk to their friend, but they wanted to know what this boy was like.

On the bed, Kouichi's eyes were still closed, but he was awake, sitting with his back against the wall. Kouji approached him and sat on the edge of the bed carefully. "…Nii-san?"

The elder twin smiled a little, though he didn't open his eyes yet. "Hey, Kouji…"

Kouji's eyes started filling with tears as he got closer to his twin to hug him tightly. Kouichi returned the hug and he started tearing up too. "Sorry Kouji… I should have been more careful. I made you and the others worry."

Kouji stopped sobbing after a moment, and shook his head as he tried to calm down. "Nii-san, it's not your fault. Don't worry…"

Kouichi opened his eyes to look at his twin. Kouji seemed tired, and it was obvious that he had been crying a lot. And also, he seemed rather surprised.

"Nii-san, your eyes…"

_Oh, that's the reason for his face'_ Kouichi thought while he smiled gently at his brother. "They're weird, right? Since this body is part mine and part Löwemon's child form, there had to be something different, I guess." He said, explaining why his eyes were now red instead of blue.

Now that Kouji looked closer, Kouichi's hair was slightly darker than before, getting closer to his own almost black hair. And his eyes were not only red; under a certain light, they seemed to acquire a golden color.

But even with all those changes, Kouji was glad that he had his brother back, and that he would be able to go back home.

Takuya and the others got closer to the twins, and started greeting Kouichi, telling him how happy they were. Kouichi had already noticed the other six kids with Digimon partners standing at the other side of the room, but decided to leave the questions for later. Especially because he was now hungry; he had been sleeping almost all the time since he had been 'reborn', so he hadn't eaten anything yet.

One of the Digimon under Cherubimon's service brought some food for Kouichi, while the Three Great Angles told the humans to go back to the other room to let Kouichi rest some more. They would be able to see him later, so not even Kouji protested.

"We need to warn you." Cherubimon started. "You have to be prepared to fight against this creature who wants to take over the Digital World."

The children listened attentively. If there was an enemy and they could have information, then good. Sometimes they didn't have any information about their enemies and that was a disadvantage.

"Dagomon comes from another dimension, called the World of _Darkness_. However, this is not the same force that the Warrior of Darkness wields. Its sole source of power is a corrupted, twisted darkness." Seraphimon continued.

"Dagomon?!"

The Three Angels and the Legendary Warriors looked at the Chosen Children. Miyako's hand was on Hikari's shoulder, and Daisuke was looking at Ken.

"Have you fought against him before?" Asked Takuya, confused at their reaction.

"Not exactly. But we have been there." Hikari said with a shaky voice.

"And Ken opened a gate there so that we could get rid of Demon." Daisuke added.

"Dagomon now isn't content with his world. He wants to take over this one, and probably the human world too." Ophanimon continued. "Since there is a natural affinity between this land and that world regardless of the power being pure or corrupt, he is planning to use it as a gate to enter. So far, he has sent a few of his servants here, which you have fought."

"Ice Devimon?" Junpei asked.

"Exactly. We fear that one day he will open the gate completely and eventually come here himself along with his servants." Seraphimon added.

"We can't let that happen." Takuya said simply. "We've got to stop him, even if we have to go there ourselves!"

"Are you crazy?!" He heard Daisuke say before he was pulled back by Junpei. "Calm down. Don't make that other team hate you or something. They seem to have a bad experience with this." The older boy whispered.

Takuya took a deep breath. "Okay, so we have to stop this guy from getting here."

Seraphimon nodded and after a moment, he dismissed the children, telling them to rest, and that they could go with Kouichi. After all, the Chosen Children had to get to know him to start trusting him. However, Hikari stayed behind and Ophanimon approached her.

"You are the child with the Crest of Light, aren't you? What's wrong?"

Hikari nodded at the angel and after a moment of thought, she spoke.

"Could you please… explain me about the darkness?"


	11. Insecurities

Kouji couldn't stop worrying about Kouichi, no matter how much he was reassured of him being perfectly fine now. The gentle look in the elder twin's eyes had calmed most of the Chosen Children about the nature of his powers, even if his eyes were unnaturally red. If three Angel type Digimon assured them of the differences between Kouichi's power and the one from the World of _Darkness_, then they shouldn't be too worried, right?

However, not everyone thought like that. Takeru was still suspicious of the boy, and no matter what anyone told him, he wasn't going to change his mind, at least not yet. He was worried of the possible effects that this boy's powers could have on Hikari and Ken. Both of them had horrible experiences when dealing with darkness, and Takeru didn't wish that kind of thing to happen to them again.

Takeru looked around the room, wondering where Hikari was. Had she stayed behind with those three Digimon? He felt the need to go back there and see if she was okay, and he was about to do it when Hikari walked into the room with Tailmon. She seemed to be better than the past days, and she was actually smiling a little too. What had happened?

As the brunette reunited with her friends, Takeru could see the way the other team was looking at his own. It was almost as if they approved of their not so subtle change of mind. However, he could also see that they noticed that he was the only one who still didn't accept Kouichi completely.

After a while, Kouichi stayed in silence after having being talking with his brother, and looked at the Chosen Children, who looked back at him, a little confused.

"May I know your names? I'm afraid we haven't been introduced properly." He said with a smile. He was still nervous though; he was aware of what they might think of him, and he didn't want to have any kind of misunderstanding with them since they were supposed to work together. And also, he was just afraid of being rejected because of the element he had power on.

Daisuke smiled at the other boy, and stepped closer to him along with his group, though Takeru remained at the back. He still wasn't convinced.

"I am Motomiya Daisuke."

"Inoue Miyako, nice to meet you."

"My name is Hida Iori, it's a pleasure."

"I'm Ichijouji Ken."

"My name is Yagami Hikari."

"…Takaishi Takeru."

The smile on Kouichi's face remained even as he noticed the tone in Takeru's voice; however, Kouji did notice the slight change of his brother's emotions. The younger even frowned a little, disapproving of the way Kouichi hid his emotions just for the others' sake.

And while Kouji was thinking that, Kouichi was trying to get out of bed, commenting something about stretching and that he needed to walk a little after being confined to the bed for almost two days. Kouji managed to hold him just before his legs gave up.

"Thank you, Kouji." Kouichi said with a sheepish smile.

"You have to be more careful, Nii-san. Otherwise it'll take more time for you to be well enough to leave." Kouji scolded, but the concern in his voice was obvious.

"Don't worry about that, Kouji. I was told that I would leave soon after you arrived, so there's no problem." The elder twin commented. "I just need a bit of exercise."

Kouji rolled his eyes and Kouichi chuckled in amusement. Goatmon led the kids and Digimon to a garden, where they could continue talking and Kouichi could walk as much as he wanted. The fact that they were out in the open helped the reborn boy to gain some strength due to the natural dark environment of the continent. Soon he could walk without his brother's assistance, though Kouji was keeping an eye on him to be ready to help him if he needed it.

* * *

_Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan; April 13, 6:50 p.m._

Tomoko was grateful that Kouichi's friends had given her their numbers before leaving the first day. She had already called their homes, informed her parents of what she had found —or what she hadn't— and getting their answer of 'I'm on my way'.

Kousei had helped a little, calling Takuya's and Tomoki's houses, though he needed some coaxing from Tomoko. He wasn't comfortable with having to call the parents of his son's friends to tell them that they had mysteriously disappeared while visiting his other son whom he was just about to meet after a decade; however, that same son he was just about to meet was the reason he was calling. He wanted to meet Kouichi after all that time, and he couldn't believe that he had disappeared just like that.

The parents were soon gathered in the Kimura house, and after calling the police the mothers were trying to calm each other down and the fathers were trying to come up with a reason of why the kids would leave just like that. They all thought highly of their own kids; although sometimes one would get in trouble, there was no way they would risk the safety of one of their friends.

Tomoko had been pulling herself together, and was actually the calmest of the women there, followed by Kanbara Yuriko and Satomi; on the other hand, Tomoki's mother was a ball of nerves, worried about her younger son. The others reassured her that their sons —and daughter— would look after him.

Mrs. Orimoto approached the blue-haired woman. "Kimura-san, aren't you worried about your son? After what happened…"

Orimoto Fumiko had heard about Kouichi's accident from her daughter, who had just one day arrived home and started talking with her about meeting 'the best people in the world', and about what had happened to Kouichi. She had felt proud of her daughter for having made friends, and gave her the emotional support she needed after seeing her friend like that.

Tomoko smiled just a little bit. "I am, but… somehow I have some peace in my heart, that he's safe." She then sighed, losing her smile and acquiring a slight frown. "I just don't know why they would leave the house. It doesn't make sense, and none of them are answering their cell phones." She felt a little bad while saying that, because she wasn't able to give her son the same things that the other parents gave theirs. However, she knew that Kouichi understood their situation, and never complained, not once.

_Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan; April 15, 11:34 p.m._

The group of mothers that didn't have to work —Orimoto Fumiko, Himi Airi, Kanbara Yuriko, Minamoto Satomi and Shibayama Saki— continued to look for any clues about their children's whereabouts during the day. The police was still searching, the schools had been informed, and by now the news were already on T.V. After all, the fact that six kids, one of them still recovering from an injury, had disappeared without leaving any trace was mysterious.

At afternoon, the parents that were already out of work joined the mothers at the task of looking for their children. Himi Makoto had enlisted his older son's help, and Yutaka looked around alongside Shinya, who was also worried about his older brother.

Orimoto Takumi, Shibayama Haruki and Minamoto Kousei had hired detectives to help with the search, while they and Kanbara Hiroaki searched every day.

Tomoko was always the last to join. She lived further away than the other families, which was just one of the difficulties she had. Unlike the other women, she had to work hard to provide for Kouichi, and barely had any time to look around. After another exhausting day, she returned home, feeling defeated. Where were her sons? Where were their friends? Were they alright, or injured? There was so much she wanted to know, and even though she felt peace in her heart, her maternal instinct told her that there was something else, something big.

* * *

_Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan; April 15, 10:00 p.m._

Yagami Taichi was watching some T.V. with his parents. They knew that Hikari had gone to the Digital World for some days —though Taichi was almost sure that it wouldn't be just 'some days'— and they couldn't do much, except wait. The news report was starting, and the first note was about six kids that had recently disappeared in Shinagawa, although apparently not all of them lived in that zone. Taichi listened to their names and looked at them closely; one of the brunets was wearing goggles, just like he used to do, just like Daisuke did… and just like Hikari and the others had said that the apparent leader of the kids they had found at the Digital World did. There was also the big, tall kid, the blonde girl, the small boy with the big hat, and the guy with long, black hair.

And without a doubt, the other kid, the injured one, was the one who apparently had died. The news reporter said that he was injured, and if those kids were the ones his friends had met, then it made some sense; fighting while injured isn't the brightest idea.

But what had happened with the kid? Had he actually died? They were able to transform into Digimon, right? Or at least that's what the youngest member of his team had said. If that was true, then could he be reborn, just like a Digimon would? He would have to talk to Koushirou about that.

After the news shifted to another topic, Taichi stood up and went to the phone to call Koushirou. He asked him if he had seen the news, and that he needed to talk to him about it. After an hour was set, Taichi hung the phone and went to his room to finish his homework and then go to sleep.

* * *

_Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan; April 15, 7:45 p.m._

Katsuharu, Teppei, Teruo and Chiaki were reunited near Shibuya Station. All of them had seen the news about the disappearance of the kids that they had met in the Digital World, and wondered whether their disappearance was related to the Digimon.

"Remember that when we came back, it was the same day we left." Chiaki pointed out after Teppei said that it would be too soon. "Probably in the Digital World many years have passed already."

"You're right, Chiaki." Katsuharu added. "More than disappeared, I think they left willingly… even if Kouichi is injured. I don't think any of them would stand to stay behind."

"Well now that we at least suspect that, what should we do? Tell their parents?" Teruo asked. "It's unlikely that they'll believe us."

"Yeah, they probably won't, but we don't lose anything if we at least try. We can even show them the Trailmon under Shibuya Station." Katsuharu replied while looking in the direction of the place he had just mentioned.

* * *

It was night in the Digital World. It would be the last night Kouichi would spend in the Three Angel's care, and thus he was excited at being able to leave and continue his journey with his friends and the Chosen Children. However, when everyone had gone to the rooms Cherubimon had provided for each one, Kouji decided to address the problem of a certain Chosen Child's distrust of Kouichi's powers.

"Kouichi?"

"What is it?"

The younger twin looked down for a moment before returning his gaze to his brother. "You noticed… that he doesn't trust you like the others do."

Kouji was already expressing certain regret over mentioning it, because he knew that Kouichi didn't like it; but the situation had to be solved somehow. He saw how his brother looked down and closed his eyes.

"I know, but I don't blame him."

"But it still hurts, doesn't it?" Kouji said as he moved closer to his brother. Kouichi looked up and his eyes met Kouji's, which were full of concern for his brother's well-being. The elder twin looked down again and just nodded slightly.

Kouji soon found himself embracing Kouichi, who moments later started sobbing quietly. For him, it was such a great pain, but as he had said, he didn't blame Takeru. He would have done the same if he was in the blond's place; who would trust Darkness so easily? Especially after everything he had done as Duskmon, even if he regretted all of that and changed for the better. He didn't blame Takeru at all.

But Kouichi had another reason to be sad. Cherubimon had told him that there was no time difference between the human and Digital worlds anymore. That meant that his mother was well aware of his disappearance, and she was probably worried about him; the thought of giving his mother more trouble grieved him.

"Mom… I'm sorry." He muttered softly, and he could feel Kouji's arms tightening around him, and the hint of Kouji's tears falling on his hair.

"Nii-san, don't cry… We'll go home soon. You'll show her that you're fine, and you'll meet Dad too."

Kouichi calmed down a little at the idea of meeting his father. He didn't know what to think. All of what he had done as Duskmon was mostly fueled by a thirst of 'vengeance' towards the man. So, as much as he actually desired to actually meet him and get to know him, he was afraid. His father might not know about what had happened, but _he_ knew. Kouji knew. His friends knew. Cherubimon knew.

He decided to keep those thoughts out of his mind for the time being. They had a mission in that world, and he didn't need any depressing thoughts taunting him. There would be plenty of time for that later, but he needed to focus now unless he wanted to end up dying once again. He even recalled hearing Cherubimon saying that he 'already died too much', and the memory made him chuckle softly, catching his brother's attention.

"Kouichi?"

"Sorry, it's nothing… Just something I remembered."

Noticing the strange look on Kouji's eyes made Kouichi frown slightly. "What is it?"

"Nii-san… your eyes changed their color. They're back to blue now."

"Strange… The Angels didn't say anything about that. It must be nothing."

"They're red again."

"Stop worrying, Kouji." Kouichi said with a slight smile. "Nothing's going to happen."


	12. Hope Spot

_Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan; April 16, 6:00 p.m._

"Katsuharu, are you sure of this?"

"That's the only thing we can do right now. It's not like we can just go to the Digital World to help them, Teppei."

"I know, but what if they don't believe us?"

"Then we'll have to take them to Shibuya Station. It's not like they can deny the existence of the Trailmon."

"Chiaki is right. Come on, let's just do this."

The four kids were sitting in Katsuharu's room, checking for the fifth time that they got the number of the Kanbara household right. The phone numbers of five of the families had been displayed on T.V. so that anyone who had seen them could call. Kouichi's number hadn't been on the list, and that seemed strange to the group of four. The reality was that Tomoko wouldn't be home until night, so she decided that it would be just a waste of space on the screen.

Katsuharu finally pressed the 'call' button, and had to wait a little until someone picked up the phone.

"Kanbara residence, who is this?"

Katsuharu got a bit surprised that the person who had answered the phone was a small kid; probably Takuya's brother?

"Ah… My name is Katsuharu, and I'm a friend of Takuya's… I think I have an idea of where he might be."

There was only silence for a few moments before a woman took the phone.

"Hello? Are you Takuya's friend? Do you know where he is?"

She sounded a bit desperate. Katsuharu didn't blame her.

"Yeah… Kanbara-san, some friends and I have a clue about where everyone might be, but…"

"…But?"

Katsuharu sighed. Teppei, Chiaki and Teruo knew that it would be hard to explain the situation, but they trusted their non-official leader to be able to give a reasonable explanation.

"You might find it a little difficult to believe, but I assure you that it's the truth! You see, we think that they are all in a place called the Digital World."

There was silence at the other end of the line again.

"Digital… World…?" Yuriko asked with a shaky voice.

"Y-Yeah… we can even take you to the underground station where they left for the Digital World."

Katsuharu tried his best to sound serious in order to convince the woman of what he was saying. He was starting to think that maybe calling Tomoki's house would have been a better idea, but his brother knew him as Tomoki's bully rather than friend.

"Are you sure you can prove this?"

"Yes, Kanbara-san. We can even show you right now!"

"You really can?"

"Definitely. Meet us at Shibuya station, and we'll show you the underground station."

And there was yet another moment of silence.

"Okay. I'll be there in twenty minutes."

After that, she hung up.

"Well, that was easy."

* * *

Yuriko couldn't believe that she was in her way to Shibuya Station to meet some kid that claimed to be Takuya's friend so that he could show her an underground station where her son had left for some place called the Digital World. However, Shinya believed the boy for some reason.

"_He's nii-chan's friend, Mom. I heard Takuya-niichan saying his name while calling one of his other friends. And I also heard him talking about something digital, but I don't know what it was."_

Yuriko left her house, taking Shinya with her, and soon she was following the same road that Takuya had followed some days before to get to Jiyuugaoka Station.

_Just… what is the Digital World?_

She promptly bought tickets for both her and her younger son, and rode the train to Shibuya Station. Katsuharu didn't have a hard time spotting her; Takuya resembled her a lot.

"Kanbara-san?" The brunet asked her, and she nodded.

"So you're Katsuharu-san, Teppei-san, Teruo-san and Chiaki-san?" Shinya said, repeating the names that he had heard Takuya mention in his conversation on the phone.

The four kids nodded.

"We'll show you the place now. Follow me, please." Said Katsuharu, and they started walking towards a elevator. He pressed the button to the basement, and after a while Yuriko realized that they were going even below that.

Suddenly, the elevator stopped. In the back of his mind, Teruo had been nervous about being able to get to the Trailmon Station; after all, there was no _actual_ need for them to go. Maybe, he thought, they were allowed to just to show the others' parents that they were not lying.

"Here we are." Teppei said once the doors opened and they could see two Trailmon waiting in the Station in case another of the Chosen Children had to go to the Digital World.

"These are Trailmon. They can take us to the Digital World and back." Chiaki said when Yuriko stared at the train Digimon.

"So… you're saying that Takuya and his friends rode these train creatures to another world?"

"Uh… yeah…" Katsuharu replied.

_If there was someone who could confirm this…_

* * *

_Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan, April 16, 3:30 p.m._

Taichi, Sora and Yamato were following Koushirou to his house. The four of them decided to talk about the kids that had disappeared in Shinagawa, and were going to reunite with Jyou in Koushirou's house. Unfortunately, Mimi couldn't attend their reunion —not even through video chat— due to the different time zones between Tokyo and New York. Once the five of them settled in the living room, Koushirou started organizing the information they had about the six kids; name, age, where they lived, their parents' names, phone number. Koushirou didn't waste any time at trying to find out more about them.

"Apparently, Kanbara-kun and Minamoto-kun are interested in sports." He mused out loud while looking through some records of tournaments of both soccer and bojutsu. "I can't find anything about the other four; while I could associate the names of most of their fathers, there's nothing about the kids, especially about Kimura-kun, but that's probably because he lives only with his mother, while his twin lives with their father."

"We know that, but are we completely sure that those are the kids that went to the Digital World?" Yamato asked.

"Well, they do match the descriptions, though we can't be one hundred percent sure about Kimura-kun." Sora replied gently.

"If what they said it's true, then it would make sense for him to be the fallen one. They keep saying that he suffered a major accident some days ago." Jyou commented.

"Then, what should we do?" Taichi asked. "Obviously their parents don't know about the Digital World; but I don't think we can just call them and tell them that their children are in another world."

"That would hardly be productive." Koushirou mentioned once he gave up on looking for more information —for the moment, at least—. "I suggest that we try to contact Daisuke-kun and the others through the D-Terminal first so that they can confirm the names for us."

Taichi nodded and quickly took out his D-Terminal and sent a message to Daisuke, asking him the names of the children they had met in the Digital World.

While they waited for an answer, Izumi Yoshie entered the living room, offering her son and his friends something to eat.

* * *

_Cherubimon's Castle, Continent of Darkness, Digital World, April 16, 3:45 p.m._

The Chosen Children and most of the Legendary Warriors had been gathered in a room while they waited for the Three Angels and the twins to arrive. Kouichi had to go through a last check up before leaving, and Kouji had insisted on being there.

Daisuke looked at the Warriors. Now that they didn't have anything to do at the moment, he could see them with their guards down. After the initial relief of knowing that Kouichi was actually alive, they looked pretty worried about something else. After a minute, his thoughts were interrupted by the beeping of his D-Terminal, which told him that he had received a new message.

"What is it…?" He wondered to himself while taking the device out of his pocket and opened it to read. "A message from Taichi-san!"

Daisuke's team gathered around him, eager to know what the message was about.

"How are you doing blah blah blah… eh?!"

Daisuke's reaction attracted the attention of the four warriors that were in the room, and their confused faces only got worse when Daisuke gave them a slightly worried look.

"What is it?" Takuya asked.

"Uh, how do I say this...? Well… it seems like your parents are looking for you all. Can't blame them though, you haven't gone back home in days."

The Warriors looked at each other with a sad expression on their face. They wanted to go back and reassure their families that they were okay, but they had a mission, and they had lost enough time already; if they wanted to prevent Dagomon from entering the Digital World, they had to stay.

"But… what about Kimura-san? She's probably really worried about Kouichi…" Izumi said. Takuya sighed heavily; Izumi was right. The nice thing to do would be to at least let her know that Kouichi was fine. But the right thing would be to continue on their quest to protect the Digital World. Wasn't it their second home? The place where they had been reborn as Digimon; especially Kouichi.

While the Warrior team discussed this matter, Daisuke was dedicated to reply to his senpai's message.

_Yes, those are their names. They don't seem to want to go back yet, though._

Daisuke sent the reply and then looked at the others. "What are you going to do then?"

* * *

"I told you, I'm going to be okay."

"You say so, but you didn't…!"

"Because it's nothing to be…"

"How do you…?"

"I'm basically a…!"

"I don't care about that… I care about your well being."

Since the first statements had been yelled, it was a little surprising to Kouichi that the last one had been whispered. He looked at his brother that now was looking at him rather concerned. Kouichi sighed and got closer to his brother, pulling him into a hug. He could feel Kouji hiding his face between his shoulder and his neck.

"I just… I don't want to lose you again…" Kouji whispered after a while. "I wouldn't be able to stand it a third time…"

Kouichi tightened the hug and softly rubbed Kouji's back to comfort him.

"You won't lose me, Kouji." He whispered. "I'm okay now, I swear. I won't leave you again."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

The twins remained in the same position for a few minutes before Kouji pulled away and dried some tears that he hadn't managed to stop. Kouichi smiled a little at him before standing up and walking to where their friends were, with Kouji following him.

* * *

"What are you going to do then?"

The brothers' gaze was quickly directed to their leader, wanting to know what everyone was talking about. Takuya looked at them worriedly, but didn't answer the other goggle head's question immediately.

"Kouichi, Kouji…"

It was completely silent for a few moments before Junpei decided to speak.

"Guys, it's about our parents…"

That was enough to get the twins' attention.

"Apparently they're looking for us, since we just disappeared without warning." Junpei explained. "We were deciding if we should go back and tell them we're okay, but…"

"I don't think that would be a good idea, we don't have much time left." Kouichi interrupted. Of course, he wanted more than anyone to tell his mother that he was alright, but she could wait; the Digital World wouldn't.

* * *

_Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan, April 16, 3:57 p.m._

Taichi was getting worried, since Daisuke was taking too long to reply. Koushirou was monitoring the communication between the Digital World and the human world, and had discovered something that was blocking it; that was the reason that when the D-Terminal beeped to announce the arrival of a new message, Taichi was taken by surprise.

"Let's see…" He said while opening the message. "Daisuke says they are. Should we call their parents? We can show them the Trailmon under Shibuya Station."

"We have to take the elevator to the basement of the station to get there, right?" Sora asked to verify if she remembered correctly.

"Yeah… then, which parents should we call?" Yamato wondered.

"I'd say that it'd better if we called Kimura-kun's family, but we don't have a number." Koushirou reasoned. "Then we should call Minamoto-kun's parents since he's his brother."

After everyone had agreed, Taichi took out his phone and dialed the Minamoto's phone number. He was greeted by a woman's voice, and after briefly explaining that Kouji and the others were in the Digital World and that they could prove it, Taichi arranged to meet the woman and her husband in Shibuya Station at 6:30 p.m.

* * *

_Shibuya Station, Tokyo, Japan, April 16, 6:33 p.m._

Satomi and Kousei weren't sure of what to make of the current situation. What they had been told sounded really crazy, but if there was a possibility of knowing where Kouji and the other kids were, then they would take the chance. After a few minutes, some teenagers met up with them and told them to follow them.

After taking the elevator, they all noticed how it seemed to go even lower than the basement. It felt like an eternity to get to the bottom. When the doors opened, Kouji's parents looked around at the Trailmon, but their attention was quickly diverted to a certain spot.

"Kanbara-san?!"


	13. The Four New Warriors

_And finally the 13__th__ chapter! I hope you enjoy it~!_

* * *

_Shibuya Station, Tokyo, Japan, April 16, 6:35 p.m._

"Satomi-san? Minamoto-san?"

Yuriko looked at the couple standing behind her, who was surprised to see her, just as she was surprised to see them in that place.

"Yuriko-san… I suppose you're here for the same reason we are." Satomi asked, managing to smile a little.

Yuriko nodded, and while the adults talked between them, the Chosen Children and Katsuharu's group met for the first time.

"Are you friends of Kanbara-kun and the others?" Koushirou asked, wanting to know every detail he could.

"You could say so." Katsuharu replied. "But who are you? How did you know about this place?" He questioned with a bit of suspicion in the tone of his voice.

"We're Chosen Children. Some of us went to the Digital World too, and are helping your friends with the current situation." Taichi answered. "I guess you didn't know about that."

Teppei shook his head slightly as an answer. "We only guessed they were in the Digital World because of how they disappeared, but we weren't actually sure until you came with Kouji's parents."

Shinya was paying more attention to this conversation than the one the adults were having. So, Takuya was a… Chosen Child? His new friends were Chosen Children too?

It was then when the adults decided to interrupt the youngsters' talk and approached them, Yuriko pulling Shinya along with her.

"We were wondering… could we… go to the Digital World, too?"

Shinya looked at his mother rather surprised at the question. Did she want to go to the Digital World? Maybe, if she went, he could go too! But then Katsuharu talked and crushed this short-lived illusion.

"I'm sorry… I'm not sure if _we_ can go there… As far as I know, you would need to be called there."

The four kids that made up that particular group jumped in surprise as their cell phones went off, signaling that they had received a message.

"The Digital World is in danger. Will you fight, or you won't?"

"It's the same message!" Teruo exclaimed. "It _has_ to be from Ophanimon, right?"

"I guess… Does that mean that we're going to the Digital World as well?"

Katsuharu nodded, not being able to hide the big smile that was on his face. Out of the four, he had enjoyed the Digital World the most, and he had also learned the most. Knowing that he would be able to feel the same thrill as before was exciting. However, he didn't let that emotion make him forget about the reason he was going; the Digital World was in danger, and he and his friends were going to help the others.

The four looked at the group of parents and Chosen Children. The parents' faces revealed something between worry and happiness; of course, they now knew where their children were, but they also knew that they were _fighting_. Their lives could be in danger, but they had already done something like this, hadn't they? What could go wrong this time?

If only they knew…

The group of four climbed into the nearest Trailmon, who had opened the door for them to board. Before it closed, Teruo, Chiaki, Teppei and Katsuharu looked at the ones who were being left behind.

"Don't worry; we'll make sure that they come back safely." Katsuharu told the parents and brother.

The parents just managed to nod, still surprised by the revelation. However, Shinya wasn't as stunned.

"Katsuharu-san! Tell my brother that he better come back safely!"

The light-brown haired kid nodded with a big grin on his face. "I will, don't worry."

And so, the Trailmon closed its doors and took off to another world.

"I just hope they'll be alright…" Satomi mumbled, and was comforted by her husband's hand on her shoulder.

* * *

_Cherubimon's Castle, Continent of Darkness, Digital World, April 16, 3:58 p.m._

"Are you sure you don't want to see your mother?" Takuya asked again, even though Kouichi had been clear. "She's probably really worried about you."

Kouichi sighed, and his eyes wavered between red and blue for a moment, though no one noticed. "I'm sure, Takuya. My mother will wait; Dagomon won't. We have to stop him from reaching the Digital World."

Takuya seemed to be worried, but didn't say anything else about the matter.

"Then, should we leave now?" Daisuke asked, trying to break the silence that grew more and more uncomfortable with each second.

"Cherubimon-sama would like you to wait a couple of hours before you leave the castle." Goatmon say as he walked into the room.

"Really? Why?" Izumi asked.

"Because Ophanimon-sama will call for reinforcements. You will need as much help as possible, and that means that all the Legendary Warriors have to be present." The Digimon replied.

"All the Warriors?" Junpei said, not sure if he had understood it correctly. "Does that mean that there will be another four kids?"

Goatmon nodded, and the Three Great Angels walked into the room as well.

"That is correct." Ophanimon said. "These four were chosen from among the ones that had come the first time; and this decision was based on their actions during that time."

"Do you mean… Katsuharu and the others are going to be the new Warriors?" Tomoki asked, not really sure of what he was saying.

"Precisely." Seraphimon answered. "They might not have been chosen by any of the Spirits available last time, but their decision of staying and helping in any way they could, even though it was against Ophanimon's wishes, is what makes them eligible to be the last four Warriors."

"I have already sent the message, but we believe that Dagomon is interfering with the communication between the two worlds, so it might take a couple of hours to get to them." Ophanimon explained.

"However, I have appointed the fastest Trailmon there is to receive them at the Terminal in Shibuya Station and bring them as close as possible, but you will have to meet them at the Dark Terminal." Cherubimon added.

"You should use the time you have left to rest and prepare for the upcoming battles." Seraphimon said. "Unfortunately, soon the time will arrive when we won't be able to aid you in this battle, since Dagomon's power, somehow, is greater than ours. Only you, Legendary Warriors and Chosen Children, can defeat him."

With that, the Three Angles and Goatmon left, leaving the humans and their Digimon partners alone once again.

* * *

_Past the Forest Terminal, Forest Land, Digital World, April 16, 6:50 p.m._

As soon as they had crossed over to the Digital World, the Trailmon had suddenly increased its speed, sending them to the floor. They needed a few minutes to get back on their feet, and another few to realize that their cell phones were now D-Scanners.

"Did we ever ask how many Spirits there were?" Teppei wondered, looking at his Digivice.

"Not really. We didn't ask about elements either." Chiaki pointed out.

"Judging by colors, I'd say you're the Warrior of Water, Chiaki." Katsuharu said while looking at her cerulean and turquoise D-Scanner.

"Maybe you're right… and Izumi-chan seems to be the Wind Warrior, after all she looked like a fairy when she fought back then…"

"And what about the others? Takuya looked like a Fire Warrior." Teruo commented.

Katsuharu nodded. "That's right, and Junpei-san is probably related to lightning or thunder…"

"Ah! I remember now!" Teppei exclaimed, his face shining. "When the others gave their Spirits to Takuya and Kouji so that they could fight the Royal Knights!"

"You're right! Then, let's see… Tomoki is Ice, Izumi-chan is Wind, Takuya is Fire, Junpei-san is Thunder, Kouichi is Darkness and Kouji is Light." Chiaki finally said.

"And Chiaki is probably Water, so what other elements could we have?" Teruo asked.

"Well… What about Earth? Teppei's colors are dark brown and something like brown combined with red… and blue buttons." Katsuharu said. "I don't know what other elements there could be, though."

"We can always ask the others when we meet up with them in the Continent of Darkness." Chiaki pointed out. "Look, we're already past Akiba Market."

"Eh? Really?" Teruo looked out of the window, and he could clearly see the Rose Morning Star. "You're right… though we never went to the Continent of Darkness, did we?"

"No, we were afraid of what could be there since no Digimon seemed to want anything to do with it." Katsuharu commented. "But I don't think it's that bad since the others are supposed to be there, right? And also, Kouichi is the Warrior of Darkness. If what Trailmon said is true, then it would be the best place for him to recover from all that trauma."

"Yeah… he has had it rough lately, hasn't he?" Teppei looked up while resting his chin on one hand. "At least he's okay now."

"We're now entering the Continent of Darkness. It won't be long before we arrive to the Dark Terminal." The Trailmon announced.

"Just how fast is this Trailmon?!" Katsuharu wondered out loud.

"The fastest there is! Also, Cherubimon-sama personally appointed me to bring you four as fast as I could!"

_Dark Terminal, Continent of Darkness, Digital World, April 16, 7:23 p.m._

Eventually, the Trailmon started speeding down, and they finally arrived to the Dark Terminal. It was eerie, but not as much as they had thought.

"Oi!"

The four kids turned around and they could see more than the six persons they expected. Also, they also didn't expect the elder twin to have a slightly different appearance from last time.

"Katsuharu, Teppei, Chiaki, Teruo! Did you enjoy your journey aboard the fastest Trailmon alive?" Takuya asked while displaying his big grin.

"Enjoy… not really. But he's certainly fast." Teppei said.

"If you could get here all the way from the Terminal in Shibuya Station in more or less an hour, then he's really fast." Junpei said. "It took us _weeks_ to get here. Of course, we had to stop for battles and we really didn't know where we were going."

"We should stop talking and start moving." Kouji interrupted. "We don't know when we'll be attacked, so let's just give them their Spirits already."

Takuya frowned a little as he saw Kouji walk up to his side, but soon shrugged it off. Kouji had been in a slightly foul mood after he had arrived from Kouichi's last check-up, so he was probably just worried.

"Okay, now that you're here, we can give you your own Spirits and you'll be able to evolve and fight." Takuya started. "First, Katsuharu and Teppei, step forward and bring out your D-Scanners."

The two friends did as they were told, and Takuya grinned. "As expected…" He said as he took out his D-Scanner, and four streams of Digicode appeared, two of them going into each Digivice. "Katsuharu, you're the new Warrior of Wood, and Teppei, you're the new Warrior of Earth."

Kouji looked at the other two and nodded, which was enough for Teruo and Chiaki to do the same as their comrades. Kouji took out his D-Scanner as well, and four new streams of Digicode made their way to the Digivices in front of them. "Chiaki, you're the new Warrior of Water, and Teruo, you're the new Warrior of Steel. Welcome to the team."

"You'll probably have some trouble controlling the Beast Spirit at first, but other than that, I think you're all ready to battle." Takuya said. Daisuke noticed how he seemed much more relaxed now. _Probably because Kouichi is fine now and we have another four Warriors._

Kouji sighed, trying to calm down as well, even though he would never be as calm as Takuya. "Then what are we waiting for? We have to move now before…"

The ground started shaking, and a big crack appeared.

"Just great, we'll probably have to fight another Ice Devimon_."_ Junpei muttered bitterly. The two battles they had had were pretty harsh on them. However, and much to their surprise, what appeared from the crack was not an Ice Devimon, but a Gesomon. The white squid-like Digimon seemed to be confused, but that made it a worse opponent to fight.

"Guys, I think it's time to join the battle." Katsuharu told his friends. The three of them nodded, along with the other six Warriors.

"Spirit Evolution!"

Agnimon, Wolfmon, Fairymon, Blitzmon, Chakkmon, Löwemon, Arbormon, Ranamon, Mercuremon and Grottomon appeared after the large amount of Digicode dissipated. The Chosen Children reluctantly stayed back, not only because the Warriors were more than enough to take on an Adult level Digimon, but because of the warning they had received from Gennai just before leaving Cherubimon's castle.

_Do not engage in battle yet._

The message had apparently been sent to them the day before, but due to whatever was blocking the communication between worlds it had only arrived then. That had just confused them; if they weren't going to fight, then _why_ had they been called to this world?

Hikari had a reasonably good idea of why was that, but she decided to share it until she was alone with her group. It would be a hard thing to do since the Warriors were traveling with them, but they would probably be tired after this battle and would fall asleep as soon as possible.

The Warriors were about to engage in battle with Gesomon, but it aimed at them with all its legs and prepared to attack.

"_Deadly Shade!"_

The ink that came from Gesomon's attack hit all of the Warriors, rendering them blind. The Chosen Children gasped when they realized this, but from the cloud of black ink someone came out running.

"_Ewig Schlaf!"_

The spear hit the squid and made it go back a little, but it was obvious that it wouldn't be enough to make it retreat.

"Who is it? I still can't see because of the cloud of ink." Miyako said, but the cloud was disappearing slowly. The other nine Warriors were standing in place, Fairymon and Blitzmon had landed, everyone trying to get the ink off their eyes. And now, they could see who the one who had attacked Gesomon was.

"Löwemon!"

Wolfmon knew that his brother had gone after the Digimon, even blinded, which was something that surprised the Chosen Children and worried him.

"How is it that he can fight? He can't see anything with all that ink on his face…" Daisuke mused.

"It's because he's the Warrior of Darkness." Hikari explained in a soft voice. "He doesn't really need to see, especially here in the Continent of Darkness, where his power is even greater."

Takeru looked at her. She seemed more at ease with the idea of being in such a place, which made him nervous, for some reason. Of course, at the same time he was relieved that she wasn't feeling bad, but he wondered what the Angels had told her to change her opinion.

"_Endlich Meteor!" _

Takeru returned his attention to the battle, and he could see that most of the other Warriors had finally succeeded in taking at least some of the ink off and joined Löwemon.

"Are you okay?" Wolfmon asked his brother, who was still blinded but didn't seem too worried about that.

"I'm fine. Let's just finish him off."

Wolfmon looked at him for a moment and then nodded. It was a bit strange, how Löwemon could somehow look into his eyes even though there was a layer of ink covering his. However he soon pushed that thought aside and focused on the battle.

* * *

_Finally! Now that I'm on winter break, I can continue writing chapters without school interfering!_


	14. Initial Relief

_Chapter 14~! Also, important notes at the end!_

* * *

_Shibuya Station, Tokyo, Japan, April 16, 6:40 p.m._

"What should we do now?" Yuriko wondered. "We know where they are, but… I'm worried not only for Takuya, but Kouichi-kun too."

The woman's words made Kousei concerned. She was right; their kids were fighting, and with Kouichi having suffered such a major injury…

"Dear?" Satomi's voice made him come out of his thoughts, and he looked at her. The man wasn't very good at expressing himself —just like his son—, and so only Satomi was able to tell that he was really worried for Kouichi, more than Kouji himself. Of course, the younger twin had received bojutsu training since he was seven years old, and by now he should be able to defend himself pretty well.

But what about Kouichi?

"I'm sorry, I was thinking. Maybe we should tell the other kids' parents about this." He finally said.

There were times were Yuriko could be as hot-headed as her son was, and when a parent didn't show concern about their children —regardless of whether they had seen each other during the last ten years or not— was one of those times. However, she had also acquired some wisdom through the years —unlike Takuya who had acquired that wisdom in the span of less than a "year". She could tell that the man wasn't very good at saying how he was feeling and that the time he had spaced out he had been thinking about his eldest son. It could be reminiscent of the friendship their sons had.

"We should. Let's call the others and…"

Yuriko was interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone. She answered and discovered that her husband had arrived home early.

"_Yuriko, where are you? Shinya is with you, right?"_

Her face showed a sad smile. Hiroaki was so worried about Takuya that he started panicking if he didn't know where Shinya was.

"He's with me, dear, don't worry. Actually… I think we know where Takuya and the other kids are now."

"…Wha… What do you mean?"

"We know where the kids are, dear, but… it's hard to believe. I'm going back now, I'll tell you there." She put away the cell phone and looked at the couple. "Let's all meet at my place… we'll have to wait until Tomoko-chan gets out of work, though."

"It's okay, we'll call the others. Go and explain this to your husband, Yuriko-chan." Satomi said with a smile, and then Yuriko and Shinya left the Underground Terminal.

The Minamoto couple looked at the group of five that were still there. Taichi approached them with Koushirou close behind, since he didn't want to miss anything that they might say. "You're worried about Kouichi, aren't you? We can send a message and ask how is he, though it might take a while."

"You can do that?" Kousei asked, sounding rather surprised. "It would be a great relief to his mother…"

Taichi just smiled, nodded and took out his D-Terminal and typed a message to his sister.

_Hikari, I'm with Kouji's parents right now. They want to know if Kouichi is alright. You know, he was injured when he first arrived to the Digital World so they are worried._

He sent it and looked at the parents again, but Koushirou was the one to speak this time. "As Taichi-san said before, it'll be a while before we get a reply. The communication between our world and the Digital World are being blocked by some kind of force, but I'm still not sure what it is. We can contact you as soon as we get an answer."

Kousei thought for a moment, and then shook his head slightly. "Actually… If you could come with us and tell us more of what is going on, I would be really grateful."

The five looked at each other for a moment before Jyou shook his head and sighed. "I can't. There's an exam tomorrow."

"That's okay Jyou, school's important." Yamato said before looking at Taichi. "I can skip band practice, since we don't have anything going on right now. What about you, Sora?"

His girlfriend nodded and smiled. "I have no problem with it."

"Then it's decided. We'll go with you, Minamoto-san." Taichi smiled. Koushirou just nodded since he was busy checking something on his laptop.

* * *

_Dark Terminal, Continent of Darkness, Digital World, April 16, 7:30 p.m._

The battle wasn't over yet. Even though it was only an Adult-level Digimon against ten hybrids —whose combined power would be like that of ten Adult-level, and maybe more—, it looked like Gesomon couldn't be defeated easily. Or maybe it was just that it had caught them by surprise with that blinding attack.

Whatever it was, now the Warriors were free of the blinding ink and proceeded to attack Gesomon. It wasn't long before they finally managed to make him step back —if you could do that while having tentacles, mind you—, and after a while, with a final _Endlich Meteor_, a _Salamander Break_ and a _Licht Kugel_, Gesomon's data appeared and was scanned by Löwemon.

"It's weird how he doesn't make any effort to take the ink off his eyes… Even when he can move around without seeing, it's still weird." Iori said. Armadimon looked at him and nodded. "He could probably do that even when he was just a human dagyaa~"

"Even then…?" Ken asked, joining the conversation. "It makes me wonder how powerful the Warrior of Darkness is exactly."

"We know Darkness has always been a powerful force, but since he uses it for good, maybe that makes him even stronger." Iori mused aloud. "And not only that, we're in the Continent of Darkness, and that obviously counts."

"Human soul and Digital body… that's certainly an interesting combination…" Takeru said, gaining the other two boys' attention. "And combined with such a strong force as is Darkness, well… he must be really powerful."

Iori and Ken looked at each other briefly. Both were afraid that Takeru would show his 'darker side', although it was unlikely. Takeru seemed to notice their uneasiness and smiled, shrugging it off.

Daisuke and Miyako noticed this conversation, but decided to not say anything. Those three, plus Hikari, were the ones most affected by anything that had to do with Darkness, but Hikari seemed to have understood it already, somehow. They could only wait until the three boys at least accepted it; good thing that they seemed to be in that way already.

The Warriors started devolving one by one; the first ones were the newest Warriors. They started approaching the group of Chosen Children, but the twins stayed behind, not having even devolved yet.

"That was awesome! It feels really weird, but it's incredible as well!" Teruo exclaimed. The other three were excited as well, after having evolved for the first time. While the four were describing the experience, the twins were still apart from the others, as Wolfmon asked Löwemon to devolve so that he could help him get the ink off, since the Light Warrior wasn't as tall as his brother and couldn't reach his face. He had the impression that there was a smile behind the black mask, and then he could see the Digicode surrounding him. He devolved as well, and got closer to Kouichi.

"Are you okay, Nii-san?" Kouji asked, working on getting the ink off his twin's eyes. Kouichi just continued smiling —which proved to Kouji that Löwemon had, in fact, been smiling as well—, which somehow calmed Kouji's nerves a little.

"I am, don't worry… it's just ink."

The other kids watched as this happened between the brothers, which caused Daisuke to raise an eyebrow. "Can't Kouichi just take it off by himself?"

Takuya laughed a little, and most of the kids looked at him. "Yeah, he can. But he also knows that Kouji's really worried about him, so he's just going along with whatever he says. Kouji knows it, and as soon as he calms down he'll stop overprotecting Kouichi."

Daisuke and everyone else seemed to understand, so he left the matter aside. Hikari and Takeru were specially reminded of their older brothers, who had a tendency to get overprotective of them when they were younger. And as if it was a cue, Hikari's D-Terminal started beeping, telling her that she had a new message. She took it out and smiled when she saw that it was from Taichi. However, when she read the message, her smiles disappeared into a concerned frown. It took her one second to remember the twin's story told by the other Warriors. Kouichi would now know that his father was worried about him. Hikari quickly ran to where the twins were standing, surprising everyone who was waiting to know what the message was about.

Kouji had already gotten all the ink off his brother's face, but he was still worried since his eyes had changed their color back to blue again. Kouichi was assuring him for the ninth time that he was alright, when Hikari approached them, followed by Tailmon who had followed her.

"I received a message from my brother. He is with Kouji-san's parents…"

Kouji frowned a little and looked away from his twin when he heard it. Kouichi looked at him concerned and put his hand on his shoulder, before nodding at Hikari, telling her to continue.

"Well… it seems like they know now where you are… And they're asking about Kouichi-san. They are worried about him, because of his injury."

"Ah…"

Kouichi was rather surprised by the last part of the message. He had assumed —he had _expected_— that they would have asked about Kouji. That his father would have asked about Kouji. But instead, he had asked about him; he was worried about _him_.

"Nii-san, you're crying…"

Kouichi hadn't realized it until Kouji pointed it out. Was he really crying?

"S-Sorry, I didn't mean to…" He started drying his tears, but they kept coming and coming until he couldn't hold back his sobs. Kouji looked awkwardly at Hikari, but she understood right away. She would leave them alone until Kouichi calmed down.

_Tell them that he's alright. Kouji-san is taking good care of him._

Kouji wrapped his arms around his brother, just like he had done when he found him in the hospital. He didn't have to ask _why_ Kouichi was crying; he knew perfectly well. Even though neither of them liked it, they remembered the time when Kouichi had been Duskmon. The reason he had fallen victim to that curse in the first place. To have believed a lie for such a long time, and then have the evidence of the contrary on his face was quite a shock to Kouichi. A good one, though. He was happy to know that his father _did_ care about him, even though they hadn't seen each other for most of his life.

"He wants to meet you too, you know… "

"So you told him…"

Kouji nodded and looked at his brother, who had managed to calm down.

"After I went back home after meeting our mother, I felt bad because you hadn't asked about Dad… I thought that he should at least know what happened, but I also asked him to meet you. He told me he would go to your house after he was done with work, but… apparently we weren't there…"

Kouichi looked down for a moment and then gave his brother a small smile. "Thank you, Kouji."

* * *

_Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan, April 16, 7:37 p.m._

The Chosen Children knew where Kouji lived; it had been on the news for days. And it wasn't that surprising either, since Takeru and Yamato had lived _really_ apart the first years of their parents' divorce. So, when Kousei told them that the twins hadn't met until a short time before, they weren't that surprised. After all, it was a long way from Yokohama to Shinagawa. It was actually a _miracle_ that they had found each other at all.

"I still don't know how Kouichi found out about Kouji." Kousei had explained with a small smile, though he didn't say much about the topic after that. And the teenagers wouldn't ask either; it was none of their business after all, and it had nothing to do with what they were going to do.

Taichi, the spokesman of the group, explained to the couple what the Digital World was with the help of Koushirou, since he had found some differences between the Digital World they had visited and the one their friends were in right then.

"The Digital World is _huge_. Also, I wouldn't dismiss the option of there being more than one 'Digital World'. A complete Digital Universe could very well exist, along with our world and the others we have found. This would possibly explain time differences, like the one between the Digital World they are in right now and the one we have visited before, along with the interference of Digimon trying to take control of them and altering the order." Koushirou explained.

Satomi and Kousei still didn't understand how their son, his brother and another bunch of kids were fighting in a world that seemed to come from a sci-fi novel. But they were _proud_. They wanted to protect not only their world, but another one. They were fighting to protect the ones that couldn't do so by themselves; and at least Kouji had returned having learned something. His efforts to get along with his stepmother and to make friends hadn't gone unnoticed.

Sadly, the four teenagers couldn't tell them much about Kouji's group, since all they knew was through their younger partners, and the ones that would be able to tell them anything were already in the Digital World. Still, knowing a bit more about the situation brought them some relief.

Some time had already passed, and Taichi got startled when his D-Terminal beeped.

"It's from my sister. She says that Kouichi is alright, and that Kouji is taking care of him." Taichi smiled at the couple, and the news relieved them. Kousei didn't know how the relationship between his sons was, but for what Kouji had said before and what this boy was telling him, they had become quite close in a short time.

"We should go over to Yuriko-chan's house. Tomoko-chan should be out of work by now." Satomi said. "Do you think you could go with us and explain this to the other parents?"

Taichi looked at his friends, the question implied in his expression. Yamato sighed.

"I have to get Sora home."

"It's not that late, but tomorrow I have tennis practice." She said, not wanting to leave her Chosen Child duties aside, but as Yamato had said earlier, school and other activities were important.

"Don't sweat it, Koushirou and I can go, right?" The brunet smiled at his friend, who looked at him and nodded.

* * *

_Dark Terminal, Continent of Darkness, Digital World, April 16, 7:55 p.m._

"I think it's a good idea to move before setting down for the night." Takuya said after the twins had reunited with them.

"It's not good to stay in the place of a battle for too long, right?" Daisuke commented, a slight smirk on his face. Now that the initial friction between the groups had disappeared almost completely, he found that he could understand Takuya a lot better. The other goggle-boy seemed to feel the same.

"Exactly. Now, let's get going."

The sixteen kids and six Digimon started walking, going as far as they could before it was time to rest.

* * *

_Ah, finally! School managed to get in the way of this chapter, but now that's over. The next chapter —and _maybe_ the next one— will have a bit more parent p.o.v., and then the real battle will start!_

_Also, concerning the place Kouji lives… I spent three hours researching so that I could make a decision. Considering the time he needed to get to Shibuya Station, I discovered that he probably took the Tōkyū Tōyoko Line, which takes 35 minutes to go from Yokohama to Shibuya, and passes by Jiyuugaoka where Takuya took the train. Also, Kouichi mentions in the cd drama that he would "have to take a lot of transfers on the trains to [go visit Kouji]." Since I placed Kouichi in Shinagawa, they do live far away from each other. If you have any questions regarding this, don't hesitate to PM me. (Be respectful, though!) _

_Credit for the cd drama quote to __**Onkeikun**__._


	15. Open Minded

_School ended up interfering again… and I also ended up sick. Anyway, let's continue!_

_At the end of the chapter I'll include a chart with the names of the family members (at least the ones that are relevant to this chapter)._

* * *

_Jiyuugaoka, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan, April 16, 8:40 p.m._

The parents of Tomoki, Izumi, Junpei and Kouichi had already arrived to the Kanbara's house by the time Kousei, Satomi and the two Chosen Children got there; even Yutaka, Tomoki's older brother, was there. He was as worried as the parents, and there was no way he would let his father make him stay at home while they got a possible lead to Tomoki's location.

In front of the thirteen people present ―twelve being older than them― Taichi got a bit anxious, though he didn't let it show. Koushirou, on the other hand, was as calm as always. Clearing his throat, the brunet started retelling what he had previously told Yuriko, Shinya, Kousei and Satomi.

Airi, Makoto and Haruki didn't seem to be convinced. Actually, they weren't. Both men were frowning, though Makoto was a bit subtler. Airi seemed pretty confused by all that Digimon stuff, and thought that it sounded like it came out of the shounen manga that Tomoki read in his free time.

"I really don't know how we are supposed to believe this." Shibayama Haruki said, trying to avoid raising his voice.

"We can take you to the Underground Station." Koushirou explained, trying to convince the father. "And we can also send a message to our friends there. Also, I am currently working on opening another kind of gate. If I succeed, there is a chance that you can meet your children soon."

"_Meet_ our children?" Himi Makoto asked. "You talk as if they were going to stay there forever."

Taichi had long gotten over his anxiousness, and stood up to make himself be heard.

"Not forever, but they _are_ in the middle of a mission. We don't know how long they'll have to be there. And also…"

"Also?" Yuriko inquired. Was there something else that they hadn't been told before?

"Also… It seems like they decided to stay there all this time. They have the option of coming back any time they want. They could easily come home during the day and continue with their mission after school, but they haven't."

The parents looked at each other, silently wondering just _why_ they wouldn't come back. Yutaka sighed, a bit exasperated.

"I believe Taichi-san and Koushirou-san."

Shinya's voice resonated through the room, attracting everyone's attention.

"I heard Takuya-niichan talking about something digital some days before he disappeared. He was talking about other things that I couldn't get, but now I do." He continued, smiling proudly. "If he hasn't come back, then it means that what he's doing is very important, isn't it?"

Yutaka smiled.

"I agree with him."

Before he could continue, his father interrupted him. "What are you saying, Yutaka? Tomoki is…"

"Old enough to take care of himself. He's Shinya's age, isn't he? I know he's your youngest son, dad, but I don't think you haven't noticed that he has changed. It was that Sunday, before going back to school. He's friends with the kids who used to bully him! And I, too, heard him talk about strange things. I also heard him talk to someone on the phone, and I believe it was Shinya's brother. You can see it in his eyes, Dad."

Makoto and Airi looked at their oldest son, shocked by the way he was talking and surprised by the look in his eyes. More than before, he seemed to be determined.

_Maybe we should believe…_

"I know how Yutaka-kun feels." Fumiko said, standing up along with her husband. "Izumi-chan has changed too. She had been having trouble making friends ever since we came back from Italy, but now… she seems happier. She has told me about Takuya-kun and the others. She's making friends at school too. And I have heard when she talks on the phone with the boys; she talks as if she has known them for ages!"

By her side, Takumi smiled at the incredulous parents and nodded. "Just like they are saying, something made our kids change seemingly overnight, and I'm going to believe these two boys." He said, referring to Taichi and Koushirou.

"But they are fighting, aren't they?" Shibayama Saki added a bit scared. "They're just kids! Even Junpei is too young to be… fighting against these things!"

"I'm pretty sure they're good at that now, if they have done it before." Yutaka commented, but not everyone listened.

"Yutaka-kun is right." Kousei finally talked. "They have done this before. If they came back the first time, I'm sure that they'll come back again. We have to believe in them."

"And they aren't alone either. They have each other, and Taichi-kun's friends are there too. They'll surely support each other when they need it." Tomoko continued. She was still worried, but she was able to assure herself that Kouichi would be alright if he was with his friends.

* * *

_Shibuya Station, Tokyo, Japan, April 16, 10:07 p.m._

As a way to completely convince the hesitating parents of what was going on, they all decided to go to Shibuya Station. Yuriko stayed behind, saying that it was too late for Shinya to be out and she had already been there anyway.

Of course, there was no way they could deny the presence of the Trailmon there. The ones who hadn't been there stared wide-eyed at the Digimon for some moments; even when they had been told about it before, it was still a bit hard to believe. A couple thought that they might be dreaming before realizing that they were in fact awake, and that their child was fighting in another world.

"Can we go there…?" Saki asked a bit hesitantly.

"I don't think so… I'm not sure." Taichi replied. "The Digital World is normally connected to children exclusively."

"You're not children anymore." Haruki commented.

"We are not, but we first went to the Digital World when we were younger." Koushirou said, not taking his eyes off the laptop. He had been working while they were in the Kanbara's house, and also on their way to Shibuya Station. The parents didn't comment on it, but they wondered what exactly he was doing that required that much attention and work.

After some minutes, the adults decided that it was time to go, but not before arranging to meet the next day. The Orimoto couple left first, followed by the Shibayama parents. After them, Taichi and Koushirou decided that it was late for them and went home too. Makoto almost had to drag Yutaka out of there, since he actually felt fascinated by the Trailmon ―he was on his way to become an engineer after all―. However, Kousei, Satomi and Tomoko stayed behind. The single woman had been quite silent during the meeting, and the couple knew why.

"Tomoko-chan… We know you're worried about Kouichi-kun, but he's fine." Satomi said, smiling gently at her. "Taichi-kun sent a message asking for him, and his sister said that he's fine and Kouji is taking care of him."

Tomoko smiled back and chuckled softly in a way that would be reminiscent of Kouichi.

"Sorry… I know he's fine, but I can't help worrying after that injury he suffered."

"I've been worried since Kouji told me about it, but we have to trust in them." Kousei added. He was quite awkward around his ex-wife, but he had to make an effort for the sake of his sons.

* * *

_Dark Forest, Continent of Darkness, Digital World, April 16, 10: 35 p.m._

As expected, the Ten Legendary Warriors went to sleep soon after they had set camp and had dinner. The Chosen Children decided to stand watch and let the others rest, since they weren't supposed to fight.

"Hikari-chan, there's something I'd like to ask you."

The brunette turned to see Takeru, who was holding a sleeping Patamon on his lap. He was looking at the fire, and he seemed confused.

"What is it?"

The other four children listened carefully. There were many things he could ask, and by his behavior, it was something serious.

"When we got to Cherubimon's castle, you stayed behind when Kouichi-san woke up, didn't you? What were you doing?"

"Well…"

Hikari shifted so that she was now facing all of her friends. Looking at the fire, she thought of a way to start talking.

"I asked Ophanimon… about Darkness." When her statement was met with silence, she continued. "Since I first had that shared dream with Kouji-san, even though I didn't know it was related to Kouichi-san, I could feel that the darkness was different. It didn't hurt, it wasn't numbing, and I actually felt safe and comforted by it, even though it was sad too. It was confusing."

She looked at the sleeping twins, and continued. "When I discovered that the dreams were about Kouichi-san, I realized that it was him who felt sad, but I was still confused because I couldn't get how Darkness was not evil."

"I had been thinking about it too."

Everyone looked at Ken, who was looking up at the sky. "During our first night in this continent, I started thinking about BlackWarGreymon. We know he was made from a hundred Dark Towers, and at the end he saved Iori-kun's grandfather."

Hikari nodded.

"Ophanimon told me that Kouichi-san was corrupted when he first got to the Digital World. He was sad, angry, lonely… And he was given the corrupted Spirits of Darkness. He was told that only Darkness could soothe his heart. But then he was saved by Kouji-san, and the Spirits of Darkness were purified by his wish to be forgiven, to do the right thing, and to protect the others."

Now they all looked at the elder twin, who was sleeping beside his brother. He didn't look like anything they should fear; he seemed quite peaceful.

"Still, the Spirits of Darkness are a burden since they are the easiest to corrupt. But Ophanimon knows that it won't happen, since Kouichi-san promised not to lose to the darkness in his heart again."

Takeru's eyes widened subtly while looking at Kouichi.

'_I won't lose to the power of Darkness!'_

Did Kouichi feel the same? He had been given this cursed power, and yet he decided to use it for good. He could betray them, he could fight _against_ them and win, and yet…

He didn't.

His heart was in the right place. No matter how many times he would be tempted with it, Kouichi wouldn't betray his brother and his friends.

"I guess I kind of understand now…" Takeru muttered so softly that no one could hear him.

_Dark Forest, Continent of Darkness, Digital World, April 17, 9:45 a.m._

After waking up, the group of children decided to keep moving. After all, they had to continue their trip to Lucemon's old castle. It had been there were the evil Ranamon and Mercuremon had 'tortured' Izumi, Tomoki and Junpei.

Also, it had been there were the gate point to the World of Darkness had been found, and that was a possible explanation as to why Lucemon was corrupted in the first place.

"It's kinda curious, don't you think? That Dagomon had been the one to corrupt Lucemon in the first place." Daisuke mused while walking beside Takuya. "He hasn't given us problems directly, but for some reason he wanted Hikari-chan or something, that's what Takeru said."

"He probably has other plans… By corrupting Lucemon, he caused Cherubimon to be corrupted in the past and therefore, Kouichi was corrupted." Takuya said, adding in to Daisuke's comment. "And now Demon is trapped in the World of Darkness as well, right?"

Daisuke nodded. "Ken opened a gate to the World of Darkness to get rid of Demon. Apparently it was only a temporal solution."

"Don't worry, we'll make sure that they won't get out of there." Takuya smiled at the other leader.

"Of course! There are sixteen of us, not even Dagomon and Demon together will be able to defeat us!"

Ken smiled to himself. Things were much better between the teams now that they understood a bit more. Takeru had even apologized to Kouichi for not trusting him, but the warrior had told him that it was an unnecessary apology and that he understood. Still, Ken suspected that he had been hurt by it at least a little.

They continued their trip in a light mood, mostly chatting amongst themselves, sharing experiences. The new Warriors asked things to the experienced ones, and the Chosen Children commented on their different ways of evolution.

That peace didn't last long, since out of nowhere they felt the ground shake. Some groans and complains where heard since they all knew what that meant: one of Dagomon's servants.

"Oh please, not again…" Junpei muttered under his breath.

IceDevimon came out of the new crack on the ground, and an evil laugh escaped its mouth.

"I won't let you get any closer to that gate, humans…"

This one was a short battle. Between Agnimon, Fairymon and Blitzmon they managed to defeat him, which could mean three things: they had gotten stronger, they were really annoyed, or that Dagomon was busy with something more important and so had sent just a distraction.

"Maybe they're opening the gate now!" Daisuke exclaimed as soon as the three Warriors devolved.

"Then… we should get over there as soon as possible." Takuya looked towards the castle. It wasn't that far away now, and so the sixteen kids and the six Digimon started running, but they hadn't even advanced one meter when a strange fog appeared in front of them.

"Ch…sen Chi…en… Le…ar… Wa…ors…"

"Who's that?" Takuya demanded, but Daisuke gasped.

"G-Gennai-san?"

The form of the young man finished materializing, and his expression was halfway between happiness and worry.

"Hello, I'm glad I got you before you entered there."

"It's great to see you, but what are you doing here? We're on our way to stop Dagomon from opening the gate!" Miyako said, appearing from behind Daisuke.

"I know that, and that's exactly why we have to do this now. It's really important to stop Dagomon, but we can't leave them worried for much more time…"

* * *

_Jiyuugaoka, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan, April 17, 10:40 a.m._

Once again, the parents were all reunited in the Kanbara's house. This time, only Koushirou was present, since he had been the one to contact them all. Probably they would all have trouble at work, but since it was 'an emergency related to the disappearance of their children', maybe everything would be fine.

"I'm glad you're all here, we don't have much time." Koushirou said while setting up something with the two laptops he had brought along. The parents felt a little useless while they watched him running between the two machines that were facing each other, as far away as possible.

"Much time? For what, Koushirou-kun?" Yuriko asked. Even though no one really knew what he was doing, they held some hope.

"I finally discovered a way to set up a gate to the Digital World. It'll only last around ten or fifteen minutes, but I think that's enough for you to talk with your children before they try to stop Dagomon from entering the Digital World."

"A gate? Really?" Some mothers stood up, large smiles adorning their faces. Koushirou just nodded and continued working for a couple of minutes before his D-Terminal beeped with the arrival of a new message.

"Hmm… They are ready. I'll open the gate now, but remember that you only have less than fifteen minutes."

All the parents stood up, eager to see their children again. Koushirou pressed some keys on his laptop and both machines lit up; after a few seconds, some fog appeared, and from behind it, the gate started opening.

Six kids appeared on the other side of the gate. They were smiling at their parents, and stepped forward through the gate.

The parents released the breath that they didn't realize they were holding, and with tears in their eyes, they ran towards their children, holding them close.

* * *

"Hey Mom, hey Dad…" Takuya said, hugging his parents. "Shinya's at school right?"

"Takuya, what were you thinking, leaving just like that?" Yuriko said, trying to stop the tears.

"Didn't you know that we were really worried? We've been looking for you all this time." Hiroaki scolded him, but he didn't sound as mad as he was supposed to be.

"I know that, but this is really important. I can't just ignore it when the Digital World is in danger. After all, we're all half-Digimon… It's our home now too."

"Takuya… Just what…" His mother couldn't finish her question. Takuya was looking at them with a serene smile, and his parents couldn't deny the maturity and determination in his eyes.

"I'll explain everything when we come back. We don't have much time, do we? Also, tell Shinya that Katsuharu gave me his message when he comes back from school."

* * *

"Izumi-chan, we were so worried!"

"What were you even thinking about? It's dangerous!"

Izumi let go of her parents and looked at both of them in the eyes, with the most serious expression.

"It's dangerous, but I'm a strong lady! I've become stronger thanks to my friends and the Digital World, and that's why I can't just leave it when it needs my help!"

Fumiko blinked at her, and so did Takumi. Both parents looked at each other, and then back at Izumi, with small smiles in their faces.

"We know you're not alone, dear… but just try to understand us a little. We've been really worried about you since you disappeared."

Izumi smiled a little as well.

"I never meant to worry you, but this is something that can't wait."

* * *

"Junpei, I just saw you stepping out of that gate, but… I still can't believe it."

The brunet smiled at his father. "I get it, I was skeptical at first as well, but after traveling through the Digital World, it just… became a part of me."

"A part of you?" Saki asked, letting go of Haruki's arm to hug her son.

"Yes! I became a Warrior, so I can't ignore it when it needs help!"

Haruki smiled at his son. He sounded nothing like the Junpei from a month before. However, that didn't mean that he wasn't still worried or skeptical about it.

"So… they chose you to be a warrior, huh?"

Junpei knew that his father was trying to put all the blame on Ophanimon since she had been the one to guide them to the Spirits, so he shook his head.

"Rather than be chosen, I was the one who made the choice. I pressed the button that day, and my actions were the ones who allowed me to become a Warrior. I chose this, Dad."

* * *

Airi and Makoto hugged their younger son tighter than they ever had. Airi couldn't hold back the tears. Tomoki tried to reassure her with one of his smiles.

"Tomoki, you have no idea of how worried we were." His father reprimanded him while holding his wife with one of his arms. "We've been looking for you like crazy all these days."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you before leaving, but now you don't have to worry about me." He said while smiling brightly. "We're going to save the Digital World, and then we'll be back home, I promise."

"Tomoki, you're just eight years old!" His mother pleaded, still unable to hold back the tears.

"But I'm not afraid, Mom. I know that all of us together can do this. We'll stop Dagomon from reaching the Digital World."

Tomoki's smile disappeared and was replaced by a determined frown that surprised his parents.

"I'm not going to run away."

* * *

Kouichi didn't stop to think; he just ran straight to his mother and hugged her as tightly as he could, and she returned his embrace. They stayed like that for a moment, in silence, just like they had done after his grandmother died. The thought reminded him that he _should_ be dead as well, and that made him feel guilty for being careless.

"Kouichi, I know you must have a very good reason for this, but I've been worried, you know? After your grandmother died and you fell down the stairs, I… just…"

He was feeling even guiltier now. Who made their mother cry like that?

"Sorry…"

Tomoko looked at him, and she realized that his looks were different. He now had black hair ―slightly longer than before too― and red eyes.

"Kouichi, what… what happened to you?" She asked, caressing his cheek. She slipped her hand towards the back of his head were the bump should have been, but there was none.

And Kouichi didn't look at her.

"Sorry… I know I owe you an explanation and much more, but we don't have enough time for that right now. I'll make it up to you when I come back, so please, wait for me."

Tomoko's heart broke at the sound of her eldest son's voice. It was almost _dead_, but she didn't know why. Kouichi knew that it pained her, but he couldn't bring himself to sound otherwise when he felt such a heavy guilt inside.

* * *

At the other side of the room, Satomi trapped Kouji in a tight hug while Kousei looked sternly at him.

"Kouji… just… what were you thinking about?"

"I was thinking about saving the Digital World. There are thousands of lives that depend on us, and we weren't about to ignore them just like that." Kouji was calm, but there was just a hint of hesitance on his voice. "Not after what the Digital World did for me… for us."

Kousei had an idea of what Kouji meant by that, but he was afraid to ask. Satomi looked at him with worry on her eyes, praying that he would be able to express his feelings. Kouji look aside for a moment, and then back at him. "Are you ready?"

The man seemed lost for a second, and then nodded. Kouji walked towards the other side of the room, passing by his friends' reunion with their parents. Everyone knew what was about to happen, so everyone stopped talking.

Kouji hugged his mother for a moment before looking at his brother. Kouichi was looking down, nervous and trembling a little.

"He's waiting." Kouji took his twin's hand and he looked up. With a nod, they both started walking back to where Kouji's parents were waiting. With each step, Kouichi became more and more nervous to see his father. He had hated and resented him not even a month ago, and now here he was, holding his brother's hand, following him to meet the man that he had never called 'father'.

Using the few centimeters that made Kouji taller than him, Kouichi hid behind his brother. It was something ridiculous, since he was almost twelve and he knew that he couldn't actually _hide_. But no one tried to make him move. Kousei stood in front of Kouji, waiting for his older son to come out.

_There's only six minutes left. I have to do it now._

Still trembling, Kouichi stepped out from behind his brother. Slowly, he brought himself to look up at his father.

Kousei felt as nervous as Kouichi was, probably even more. So, when he could look at his son's eyes for the first time, he felt heartbroken when he saw how utterly _sad_ he seemed.

"Kouichi…"

Kouichi looked down again and started sobbing painfully. Kouji fought the impulse of comforting him, expecting his father to do it, though he tried not to harbor too much hope on that.

Kousei felt paralyzed. He wanted to reach out for Kouichi, but his own awkwardness kept him from moving.

And then he felt someone pushing him forward.

He didn't have to look back to know that it had been his wife. Instead, he focused on the movement that he had regained and hugged Kouichi. Kousei now felt his own eyes welling up with tears, and tightened the hug.

"Kouichi… my son, I've missed you so much." Kousei muttered so that only he could hear. "I love you…"

Kouichi almost choked up when he heard that. After all he had done, after every horrible thing he had thought of his father…

He forced himself to calm down; the time was almost over. Letting go of his father, he dried his tears and looked up at him.

"Me too…"

Kousei smiled a little and placed a hand on his son's head. "Be careful… I want to get to know you when you come back, okay?"

Kouichi nodded, and managed to form a smile of his own.

"It's time to go." Koushirou said softly, but loud enough for everyone to hear. There were only two minutes left.

The six kids hugged their parents one last time before stepping back into the gate.

"Don't worry, we'll be back soon." Takuya said as he gave the adults a thumb up.

The gate started closing, and finally the laptops shut down.

* * *

_And that was the longest chapter! I'm sorry it took me so long (though it only took me three days to type ewe;), but as I said before, school somehow managed to get in the way again and then I got sick (I'm still sick though)._

_Anyway, here's the list of relevant names for this chapter, although it should be obvious with the last part._

_Takuya's family: his father Hiroaki, his mother Yuriko and his brother Shinya._

_Izumi's family: her mother Fumiko and her father Takumi._

_Junpei's family: his mother Saki and his father Haruki._

_Tomoki's family: his mother Airi, his father Makoto, and his brother Yutaka._

_Kouji and Kouichi's family: their father Kousei, Kouji's mother Satomi and Kouichi's mother Tomoko._

_I've been thinking of names for other possible members of their family, like grandparents and stuff like that, but they'll be mentioned whenever it's relevant. Thanks for reading, and hopefully I'll have the next chapter soon!_


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